Week 5 - Documentation
6:12 PM
Just as Romanticism was a response to The Enlightenment Era,
Realism was a response to Romanticism.
Courbet, the leader of the realist movement in art, had a famous
statement about the principles of realism. He stated, “I have never seen an
angel. Show me an angel, and I’ll paint one.” We don’t necessarily need a
return to nature and the metaphysical. We don’t need to return to the past, but
we can face the present and future. We should engage with our material
surroundings, and through human labor we can better our lives. Documentation is
the recording of real life.
Romantic Era (The Nightmare by Fuseli) vs. Realism (The Stone Breakers by Courbet)
Inquiry attempts to present information objectively, while
documentation encourages subjectivity, and an understanding of human
conditions. Romanticism explores human emotions, but not on a material level as documentation does. Both documentary and fiction
can enshrine everyday labors and show real human conditions. We watched a
Lumiere film called “Baby’s Lunch.” This film is representative of bourgeois
realism, which is the documentation of everyday endeavors of the middle class. This
was purely a documentation of parents feeding their baby, but I think it
promotes understanding. It shows a human labor that is universal, no matter the
culture or time period.
Realism shows the good times, as well as the bad
times. Some realism shows the gritty realities, and how social circumstances
can be binding and oppressive. People are often defined by their heredity and
environment. This type of realism is more pessimistic, but shows that there is
still hope, even in hard conditions. We watched the short “Aruba,” which dealt
with showing bitter realities of living in a low-income, inner-city
environment. The main character is in very hard situations, but engages with
his means in order to better his life. The film Killer of Sheep (1979) is
another example of this type of realism. It is about the lives of black people
living in the ghetto. It shows their labors, successes, and disappointments.
There are long shots wherein the action plays out and it almost feels like a
documentary film rather than fiction.
Because this subset of realism is so heavy, and
often nihilistic, I don’t think it is usually considered “children’s media.” It
depicts children and their circumstances, but I don’t know that I’d want my own
children to watch things like Aruba or Killer of Sheep until they are old
enough to realize that there is hope and understanding to be gained from it.
The third type of documentation is magical
realism. This creates a connection between the mundane aspects of everyday
life, and the metaphysical. It shows that the human routines don’t have to be
oppressive, but can be means for adventure. I think a good example of this is
The Sandlot (1993). This shows the very real lives of a group of boys. It shows
their daily labors, both the good and the bad. When their prized Babe Ruth
baseball gets hit into a neighbors yard, they have to go on adventure to
retrieve the ball from “the beast,” a normal dog that has been exaggerated into
a horrible monster by their imaginations. The whole movie is made up of
instances of average kid life, but it is made to seem more adventurous and less
“mundane.”
We watched the film Little Fugitive (1953) in class. This film showed the real material conditions of this little boy, Joey, and his brother. It was a documentation of his day at Coney Island. The film took its time showing us the processes he goes through. He was on an "adventure" but he used his own means and his own labor to survive the day. This film was groundbreaking for the time. It was filmed in real locations, and the stars were non actors. The style of filming was also very documentary-like, which wasn't seen very much in fiction. I thought this film was a great example of engaging with our social and material environment in order to see our potential as humans. Not only is this film about a child, but I think children would enjoy watching it. They would be able to relate to what Joey experiences, and everything he does would make sense to them.
Documentation is very effective in teaching understanding, and confronting our material circumstances. We shouldn’t feel the need to “escape” from our everyday lives. We should learn to find joy in the journey. Additionally, when we participate in realism in media, we come to understand the material. We can learn that through trials and labor, we can find hope, and ultimately realize our humanity.
Documentation is very effective in teaching understanding, and confronting our material circumstances. We shouldn’t feel the need to “escape” from our everyday lives. We should learn to find joy in the journey. Additionally, when we participate in realism in media, we come to understand the material. We can learn that through trials and labor, we can find hope, and ultimately realize our humanity.
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