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THE ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT OF DOCUMENTARY FILM
Davlatbek Urozaliev
PhD student at the Uzbekistan State Institute of Arts and Culture
Annotatsiya:
Ushbu maqolada jahon hujjatli filmining kelib chiqishi va shakllanish jarayoni
haqida so‘z boradi. Hujjatli filmning ilk namoyandalari va ularning kinoshunoslikka qo’shgan
hissasi e’tirof etiladi.
Kalit so‘zlar:
hujjatli film, operator, kadr, visual san’at, John Grierson.
Abstract:
This article discusses the origins and developing process of world documentary
cinema. It acknowledges the early pioneers of documentary film and their contributions to the
field of film studies.
Keywords:
Documentary film, cinematographer, frame, visual art, John Grierson.
A
documentary film
is a major form of
audiovisual art
. Unlike feature films, it relies solely on
real-life facts and events
. This type of cinematography can convey any
emotion or catharsis
that a fictional film may present, but based on actual events happening or that have happened in
reality.
The initial step in the development of documentary cinema began directly with the
invention of
the film camera by the Lumière brothers
in France in
1895
. The short video clips first
captured on this camera—such as
Workers Leaving the Factory
or
Feeding the Baby
—align with
the features of what we now describe as “documentary film.” The
documentary nature
of these
films is reflected in their reliance on
natural realism and accuracy
. While the Lumière brothers
were establishing their film industry and winning the hearts of audiences in Paris,
Charles and
Émile Pathé
launched their own film company,
Pathé-Frères
, in
Great Britain
. In
1908
, they
began showcasing
newsreels
, transforming
Pathé-Frères
into one of the
largest film companies
in the world
.
Pathé-Frères
newsreels were
short films
that reported real events and news stories from around
the world. According to the “History of Cinema” section in the
Britannica
international
encyclopedia,
Pathé
began opening
foreign trade agencies
, which soon evolved into full
production studios:
Hispano Film
(1906),
Pathé-Rouss
in Moscow (1907),
Film d'Arte Italiano
(1909),
Pathé-Britannia
in London (1909), and
Pathé-America
(1910)
. These studios played a
significant role in the
early development of documentary film
as we define it today. The
Pathé
newsreels, like the Lumière films,
informed the public through images alone
, without a
narrator’s voice. These films were also shown in
designated venues and cinemas
for audiences.
1
“History of film 1830-1910” Robert Sklar, David A. Cook Britannica eksikloperdiaysidagi maqola
https://www.britannica.com/art/history-of-film/Melies-and-Porter#ref507938
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773
The true
creative spirit of documentary cinema
first emerged during the
1920s
with
Dziga
Vertov
and his team, particularly during the revolutionary period. Dziga Vertov, a young poet
and film editor, was involved in producing
educational newsreels
that played a vital role in the
struggles of the Russian Revolution.
Vertov established the
“Kino-Pravda”
(
Film-Truth
) movement, which laid the
ideological
foundation for documentary film
.
Kino-Pravda
was a series of newsreels that presented real
events vividly and without alteration. They were produced between
1922 and 1925
by the Soviet
studio
Goskino
. Vertov showcased his unique style to the world through his silent experimental
film
“Kino-Eye”
(
Cine-Eye
). One of the innovative techniques he first introduced in
Kino-Eye
—
and later developed further in
Man with a Movie Camera
—was the
composition of sequences
according to the laws of poetry
. Instead of editing scenes in strict chronological order, he
interwove episodes
according to musical rhythm and his own visual concepts
.
Kino-Eye
is
regarded as the
first poetic-style documentary film
. Vertov’s fundamental principle in the
world of documentary cinema was to
portray reality without distortion
, without taking sides,
and without promoting a specific ideology. His film
Man with a Movie Camera
reflected the joy
of continuously experimenting with the camera’s ability to film, edit, and re-edit street life.
The
contribution of the film
Man with a Movie Camera
to world cinema is invaluable.
It
demonstrated the possibility of filming with
free movement
, the
absence of ideological
constraints
for the filmmaker, and revealed to the audience the
true artistic value of
documentary cinema
. In this regard, film scholar and critic
Kirill Goryechok
, in his academic
article
“Dziga Vertov and Walt Whitman: Poetic Imagery in Documentaries,”
analyzes Vertov’s
work as follows: “In his early manifestos, the director developed the idea of combining
organic
and mechanical evolution
. Technology allows humans to make the next evolutionary leap; it
extends their senses: the movie camera sees what is beyond the human eye. Thus, cinema is
tasked with expanding the viewer’s consciousness and their perspective of the surrounding
world.”
Additionally, theorist and film scholar
M. Bleiman
notes the following about Dziga Vertov’s
creative work
: “Although Vertov rejected the art of staging, he strived to create a new form of
art based on
real-life facts
. There was indeed a contradiction here. In particular, in
Kino-Eye
and
Man with a Movie Camera
, he attempted to discover
new structures for cinematic expression
,
and perhaps even unintentionally touched on certain principles of
visual poetics
. He constructed
the imagery of these films based on the
laws of lyricism
, choosing material not according to a
2 Свилова. Дзига Вертов в воспоминаниях современников. — Москва, 1976 / с. 60
3
К. Горячок. “Дзига Вертов и Уолт Уитмен: поэтический образ в документальном кино” ilmiy maqola UDK 18;
7.01; 791.43; 791.45
https://doi.org/10.32603/2412-8562-2022-8-1-51-63
b.55
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774
narrative sequence, but
associatively
, affirming unity through the repetition of
poetic imagery
and rhythm
.”
Although
Dziga Vertov
laid the foundation of documentary filmmaking, the term
“documentary film”
was officially recognized by global filmmakers only after it was first used
by
Scottish director John Grierson
in his review of
Robert Flaherty’s film
Moana
.
John
Grierson
is considered the
founder of British and Canadian documentary cinema
. It was he
who coined the term
“documentary film”
in
1926
, and from that point on, documentary became
recognized as a distinct genre in the world of cinema. In his 1932 essay titled
“First Principles
of Documentary”
, Grierson presented the following ideas: “…It is necessary to use cinema’s
ability to observe life as a new form of art;
real
actors and
real
settings can interpret the modern
world more effectively than their fictional counterparts. Material drawn from
real life
may be
more impactful than artificially created scenes.”
With this perspective,
John Grierson
partially aligns with
Dziga Vertov’s ideological stance
on documentary filmmaking. Grierson defined a documentary as the
“creative treatment of
actuality”.
This, in turn, implies that
staging and reconstruction
can be legitimate elements of
documentary cinema. Such ideas have led to
philosophical debates
among later generations of
documentary filmmakers. This topic is examined in detail in
Chapter 3, Section 1
of the
dissertation.
The concept of
creatively reworking reality
is, without a doubt, a perfect description of
Robert
Flaherty’s
work in Western cinematography. As the founder of the
American school of
documentary film
, Flaherty is also one of the earliest filmmakers in the documentary world. His
film
Nanook of the North
(1922) is recognized as the
first full-length documentary film
.
Although it should be noted that there were longer documentary films before this, one of them—
In the Army
(1900), a British training film—was made solely for military personnel to
demonstrate protocol. Another,
The Anniversary of the Revolution
(1918) by Dziga Vertov, was
compiled entirely from archival materials.
Unlike Vertov, Flaherty used
narrative and artistic editing techniques
to arrange his shots,
scenes, and landscapes. While
Nanook of the North
may at first seem like an excellent example
of
Cinéma Vérité
, many scenes were
reconstructed or staged
for the sake of the film's
dramatic structure. The film attracted large audiences both in the United States and
internationally, grossing
$251,000 worldwide
—a substantial success at the time.
Nanook
became so famous that news of the protagonist's death was published in newspapers and
4
Е. И. Вертова-Свилова, А. Л. Виноградова. Дзига Вертов в воспоминаниях современников / Общая
редакция доктора искусствоведения И. Я. Вайсфельда. – Москва : «Искусство», 1976. — 280 с., ил.(Мастера
кино в воспоминаниях современников).
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775
magazines even in faraway places like
Tokyo
and
Singapore
. This marked the
first major
global achievement
of the documentary film as a cinematic genre
The period when newsreels became most widespread among the public was the
1930s
. This was
directly linked to the introduction of
sound recording technology
into the film industry. It
enabled the addition of
voice-over commentary
by a narrator to the footage of real events. It is
important to note that
television had not yet been invented
during this period. Therefore, for
people to receive news in an
audiovisual format
, newsreels were the only available medium.
The remarkable works of
Dziga Vertov, Robert Flaherty, and John Grierson
have been
studied extensively by numerous film scholars. Among the most notable are
L. M. Roshal
S.
Ushakina
, J. Hicks
, Annette Michelson
, John MacKay
, F. H. Flaherty
W. T. Murphy
, Paul Rotha
, Karzan Kardozi
, and
John Grierson
himself. Although
documentary cinema has evolved rapidly through various eras and movements, enhancing its
essence and significance to this day, it has been noted that the sincere faces of ordinary people
captured in the film
Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory
have remained in the memory of early
audiences for many years.
Regarding the film
Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station
, Russian filmmaker
Andrei
Tarkovsky
, in a lecture by
Vadim Skuratovsky
dedicated to the
115th anniversary of cinema
,
5
Christopher, Robert J. Robert and Frances Flaherty: a documentary life, 1883-1922. / 1968
6
Рошаль Л. М. Дзига Вертов. 1982. – 264 с.
7
. Дзига Вертов: Киновещь/ Формальный метод: Антология русского модернизма. c. 11 – 180. –
8
J. Hicks. Dziga Vertov: defining documentary film – London, New York:
, 2007. –
94 p.
9
Anette Michaelson. Kino-eye: Writings of Dziga Vertov. University of California Press. 1984. – 406 p.
10
John Mackay. Dziga Vertov: Life and work. 2018. – 468 p.
11
PHD dissertation Topp Dominic. The Representation of Politics: The Films of Jean-Luc Godard and the Dziga
Vertov Group, 1967-1972. 2015.
12
. The Odyssey of a Film-Maker : Robert Flaherty's Story. 1984. 61p.
13
W. T. Murphy. Robert Flaherty: A guide to references and resources (A Reference publication in film). – G. K. Hall,
1978. 171p.
14
Paul Rotha, Jay Ruby. Robert J. Flaherty: A Biography. – University of Pennsylvania Press, 1984. 359p.
15
John Grierson. Documentary news letter. vol 5 – 1944. 170p
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remarked: “It was only after many years that I truly realized the greatness of the Lumière
brothers’ early films. Their greatness lies in their simplicity, sincerity, and uniqueness. Look—
the train arrives at an ordinary station, and from it, people get off without paying any attention to
the camera, then disperse across the town of Perron. The Lumière films will forever remain in
humanity’s aesthetic, social, and cultural history—they are, in a word, invaluable
treasures.”Tarkovsky described the first shots filmed by the Lumière brothers as
“masterpieces
.”
In addition to the pioneering figures of documentary film such as Dziga Vertov, Robert Flaherty,
and John Grierson, it is also important to highlight the fundamental research conducted in the
global field of documentary cinema by film scholars like
J. Sadoul and A. Bazin
from France,
B. Balázs
from Hungary, Russian theorists
L. N. Djulay, G. S. Prozhiko, and S. V.
Droboshenko
, and German sociologist
Siegfried Kracauer
. These scholars not only
comprehensively covered the historical evolution and artistic diversity of documentary film, but
also analyzed the spiritual and philosophical significance of individual films. Their works
explore the impact of visual and verbal narrative on human consciousness.
World documentary cinema has gone through many stages in terms of its genres, forms, and
structures. Among these are Dziga Vertov’s
Kino-Pravda
movement, the
Direct Cinema
stream
developed by American and Canadian documentarians, and the
Cinéma Vérité
movement that
emerged from protests by French documentary filmmakers. The features emphasized by John
Grierson and Bill Nichols’s analysis of documentary modes have come to define today’s
standards in this field.
These theoretical foundations of documentary cinema undergo various transformations during
the creative process. Naturally, such transformations cannot occur without creative
experimentation in film production. In this regard, the contributions of prominent global
documentary filmmakers—such as Andrei Nekrasov, Jean Rouch, Chris Marker, Frederick
Wiseman, Robert Drew, David Maysles, Joshua Oppenheimer, Werner Herzog, Wang Bing, and
Marcel Lozinski—are considered invaluable.
REFERENCES:
1.
“History of film 1830-1910” Robert Sklar, David A. Cook Britannica
eksikloperdiaysidagi
maqola
https://www.britannica.com/art/history-of-film/Melies-and-
2.
Svilova. Dziga Vertov in the Memories of His Contemporaries. — Moscow, 1976 / p. 60
16
I.K. nomidagi Kiev Milliy teatr, kino va televidenie universiteti professori ma'ruzalari. Karpenko-Kari,
san'atshunoslik fanlari doktori, Ukraina Badiiy akademiyasining akademigi Vadim Skuratovskiy 2010 yil 1
sentyabrda Kievda, Olimlar uyida "Polit.ua ommaviy ma'ruzalari" loyihasi doirasida o'qidi.
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3.
K. Goryachok. “Dziga Vertov and Walt Whitman: A Poetic Image in Documentary Film”
ilmiy maqola UDK 18; 7.01; 791.43; 791.45 https://doi.org/10.32603/2412-8562-2022-8-1-51-
63 b.55
4.
E. I. Vertova-Svilova, A. L. Vinogradova. Dziga Vertov in the Memories of His
Contemporaries / General editorship of Doctor of Art Criticism I. Ya. Weisfeld. — Moscow:
“Iskusstvo”, 1976. — 280 p., ill. (Masters of Cinema in the Memories of Their Contemporaries).
5.
Christopher, Robert J. Robert and Frances Flaherty: a documentary life, 1883-1922. /
1968 Roshal L. M. Dziga Vertov. 1982. – 264 p. 6. S. Ushakina. Dziga Vertov: Cinematic Thing
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6.
J. Hicks. Dziga Vertov: defining documentary film – London, New York:
, 2007. – 94 p.
7.
Anette Michaelson. Kino-eye: Writings of Dziga Vertov. University of California Press.
1984. – 406 p.
8.
John Mackay. Dziga Vertov: Life and work. 2018. – 468 p.
9.
PHD dissertation Topp Dominic. The Representation of Politics: The Films of Jean-Luc
Godard and the Dziga Vertov Group, 1967-1972. 2015.
