Caitlin Dwyer, Harry Copeland, Taylor Hall, Val Quan

Doing Documentary Work

Chapter 2- The Person as Documentarian

Caitlin Dwyer, Harry Copeland, Taylor Hall, Val Quan

Background

·  Author: Robert Coles

·  Publication: Oxford University Press, 1997. In Oxford England.

·  Larger Social Issues: The Great Depression, ‘30s America, Documentary

Overview

-  Coles makes references to Let Us Now Praise Famous Men by Agee. This makes the reading difficult to fallow if you haven’t read Agee’s work.

-  FDR is very different from the common man but he attempts to relate to the common farmer.

-  Racism is an important part of this class and was very relevant during the 1930’s during the American Great Depression

-  In a good documentary, people are continually wondering why.

-  As the documentarian, we have a responsibility to be respectful, at the very least, of the people we document.

-  Mrs. Bridges, who Coles stayed with for a time, asked Coles to pay her back by not forgetting them.

-  Mrs. Bridges daughter was participating in the desegregation movement.

-  Coles points out that there are two types of Documentary questions

-  Questions of fact are basic, everyday questions with factual answers

-  Questions of moral implications are not so easy to answer because they make one question one’s moral, values and ideals.

-  Mrs. Bridges causes Cole’s to re-evaluate his world outlook when she states that she hopes he will visit her people.

Questions

·  In your personal opinion, is it right to Document people’s lives without any form or repayment to the people?

·  Is Agee’s approach of criticizing everyone the appropriate way of attempting to solve the issue of repayment?

·  Is it important to learn from the people you are documenting in regards to your own views and world outlook?

Conclusions

1.  Racism is an important theme to consider when doing documentary work. Depending on our topics, we may, or may not, be dealing with racism in our research on the Great Depression because racism was very prevalent then.

2.  In documentary work, which we will be doing, it is important to take into consideration all the time one takes from a person when performing an interview or other documentary work.

3.  One should be open to learning about one’s own life and outlook, while performing documentary. It is important to gather facts and feelings from those being documented but to also travel your own path.