I’ve been watching a documentary of HBO called Surviving the Jehovah’ Witnesses. Apart from the fact that it’s very interesting, the filmmakers (IMDB doesn’t have any production info, for shame!) have used a few interesting devices to tell their story.
Instead of repeatedly showing a handful of relevant images, they’ve used animation and micro-vignettes to convey the feelings of the interviewees or the situation they’re describing.
One of the styles is, for instance, representing child abuse by showing a child (face blanked out) holding hands with an adult, whose head is hidden by an animation of a wolf. I’m not an expert on animation, but it has that shaky look of being hand-drawn, maybe even drawn on the film; these days, I’m sure a computer was used, and of course not “film.” They will show an old photo of an interviewee, and if it’s a group photo, the faces are concealed with a white swipe that looks like Liquid Paper.*
There are also very short bits, not more than 10 seconds, that are abstract and feature people in masks. They act out things like a menacing person or group of people; they elicit emotions rather than literally acting out a story.
I watch a lot of films and particularly enjoy documentaries. (I think I’ve mentioned that many of my Bad Words come from documentary interviewees.) The method of storytelling was different enough to get my attention. We’ve seen it in fictional films but not documentaries.
Additionally, these interviews are not presented as interviews, but instead is presented as each person telling their story.** And those people (mostly ex-Witnesses, a couple of experts, and one Jehovah’s Witness elder) were articulate (so no Bad Words).
And it was made in Spain. You go, Spain!
I often avoid foreign films, I admit, because I frequently feel like I’m missing something by not understanding cultural context. An extreme case was when I started watching a lot of Bollywood films, because I realized I had tons of questions. Why does her family object to that guy? what are they implying about someone who comes from the south? what’s the meaning of this holiday? and why are they throwing around colored dust? I had to do an awful lot of research to really get it.
In the Jehovah’s Witness documentary, toward the end of part 2 (there are three), they started talking about a legal case involving “right to honor.” I’d never heard that expression before and had to look it up. (It means suing for defamation.)
*Maybe if you don’t know what it is, you should just look it up. Then marvel at my advanced age.
Your Mileage May Vary 