{"id":113600,"date":"2018-04-23T18:47:38","date_gmt":"2018-04-23T16:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/why-the-film-winnie-met-all-the-criteria-of-a-good-documentary-the-conversation\/"},"modified":"2018-04-23T18:47:38","modified_gmt":"2018-04-23T16:47:38","slug":"why-the-film-winnie-met-all-the-criteria-of-a-good-documentary-the-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/why-the-film-winnie-met-all-the-criteria-of-a-good-documentary-the-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the film ‘Winnie’ met all the criteria of a good documentary | The Conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why the film ‘Winnie’ met all the criteria of a good documentary<\/a>: <\/p>\n

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela being laid to rest. In death, as in life, she divided opinions.<\/span> EPA<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In life as well as in death, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, has sharply divided South Africans. This was evident in responses to a documentary about her that was released in 2017 and broadcast on an independent TV channel in the country a fortnight after her death on April 2 2018.<\/p>\n

It was clear from the Twitterstorm that followed the broadcast of \u201cWinnie\u201d that there has been a lack of differentiation \u2013 among the public and in mainstream media \u2013 between journalism and documentary film. While both should be factually correct, there are important differences between them. For one thing journalism should be balanced, while documentary film can \u2013 and often should \u2013 be subjective. <\/p>\n

\u201cWinnie\u201d should not be confused with news. It\u2019s a film, and it had a life on the big screen before it was broadcast on television after Madikizela-Mandela\u2019s death. It premiered more than a year ago in January 2017, at Sundance, one of the biggest film festivals in the world, where it won the director, Pascale Lamche, an award for her role. It was first screened in South Africa at the Encounters International Film Festival in June 2017. <\/p>\n

The importance of the film lies in its opposition to the representations of Madikizela-Mandela that have dominated mainstream media since apartheid. <\/p>\n

What makes a documentary<\/h2>\n

The pioneering documentary filmmaker John Grierson coined the term documentary film in the 1920s and subsequently defined it as,<\/p>\n

\n

a creative treatment of actuality. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Many others have attempted to define the form in more descriptive and prescriptive ways. But it\u2019s Grierson\u2019s definition that endures and remains the most welcoming of a variety of styles of and approaches to documentary film-making. <\/p>\n

This definition acknowledges the creativity of the filmmaker, that the film is a creation and that it\u2019s about the world. Yet it makes no claim to reality nor, for that matter, \u201cthe truth\u201d. Instead it implies that it captures the filmmaker\u2019s subjective perspective of the world.<\/p>\n

As with journalism, it is important that documentary films are factually accurate. There\u2019s an implicit agreement between the filmmaker and audience: the audience expects that what is presented is well researched; that the filmmaker is thorough and honest. One of the reasons why documentaries take several years to produce is the care filmmakers take in deciding what content to include and how to frame it. <\/p>\n

But accuracy mustn\u2019t be confused with objectivity. To a large extent the mainstream expectation that a documentary film should present both sides of a story comes from our understanding of journalism. Society expects journalists to report objectively on newsworthy events. And we expect from a broadcaster to maintain balance between opposing perspectives in their coverage of an issue. But the documentary filmmaker is passionate about her subject. She has an opinion, which she communicates in a creative, visual way. <\/p>\n

The documentary form provides time and space for deep reflection. The documentary filmmaker views a topic from a subjective perspective and her point of view should be clear in the final film. As a matter of fact this unique view of the world is what makes a documentary film what it is. <\/p>\n

Documentary filmmakers don\u2019t join a bar like lawyers, nor swear an oath like doctors. In the end the audience relies on the filmmaker\u2019s integrity. And the filmmaker relies on the audience\u2019s ability to think critically and to take responsibility for not taking a single film at face value, but rather to view, read and think further.<\/p>\n

What the documentary is, and isn\u2019t<\/h2>\n

In his book \u201cDocumentary: The Margins of Reality\u201d, the theorist Paul Ward argues that in many cases, especially those involving injustice or where mainstream media representations are skewed,<\/p>\n

\n

to remain stubbornly \u2018impartial\u2019 and \u2018balanced\u2019 in the face of clear imbalances in the real world is to actually misrepresent that world and the power struggles that go on in it. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I would argue that this is often where the role of documentary filmmakers, especially those representing the historical world, lies: in bringing new knowledge to the public, or presenting a fresh view of popularly held \u201ctruths\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cWinnie\u201d is not just a biographical film and it\u2019s not just an historical document. Yes, it is focused on an important public figure and it traces her life in relation to historical events. But more importantly it is the first film to tell the story of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela\u2019s life from her own point of view in a substantial and artistic way. It has been criticised for being one-sided, for presenting only her perspective. But that is the express purpose of this film. And in the context of the documentary genre, that is neither right nor wrong. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s now common knowledge that the apartheid regime exerted undue influence over the South African media and that Madikizela-Mandela was targeted in an attempt to discredit her to reduce her power and influence. She was a complex figure, no doubt. She was militant, a freedom fighter, a warrior. Not only an angel or a devil, perhaps both, perhaps neither. <\/p>\n

Regardless of who she was and what she did, there\u2019s no denying that she played a significant role in the fight against apartheid. In doing so Madikizela-Mandela made more personal, professional, emotional and physical sacrifices than most can imagine. Therefore Winnie the woman deserves to be heard, to be seen and to be acknowledged.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

Liani Maasdorp does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Source:<\/strong> The Conversation \u2013 Articles (AFRICA)<\/a><\/small>
\n<\/p>\n

Read more on The Conversation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Join the fun:<\/strong> Add Your event<\/a> | Submit a Press Release<\/a> | Add your listing<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why the film ‘Winnie’ met all the criteria of a good documentary: Winnie Madikizela-Mandela being laid to rest. In death, as in life, she divided opinions. EPA In life as well as in death, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, has sharply divided South Africans. This was evident in responses to a documentary about her that was released in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[8890,25370,2899,2805,4748,4414],"class_list":{"0":"post-113600","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-africa-news-2","7":"tag-conversation","8":"tag-criteria","9":"tag-documentary","10":"tag-film","11":"tag-good","12":"tag-winnie","13":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113600\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}