Saturday, April 28, 2007

Doc The Vote


On Friday we all went to see Election Day, and at the end of the day I saw another "Doc the Vote" selection, Campaign.

Campaign is another example of wonderful access in documentary filmmaking, and goes the step further into full participation, even collaboration. When the subject has strong reasons to want the film made, when it becomes "their film," the type of access one has increases exponentially. The strangest shot in the film, in some ways, is when the camera follows first-time candidate Kazuhiko "Yama-san" Yamauchi and has wife as they argue on the drive home, enter their apartment, lie down and seemingly go to sleep -- completely unconcerned about the camera.

Election Day reveals another aspect of documentary work: if one has the needed access, can you manage the logistics of getting the shots you need at a one-time-only event -- but also somehow manage to capture what is needed for the story construction of the piece? Following multiple crews across the United States on election day 2004, the film does an amazing job of making a unified experience from the diverse material, derived from vérité shoots in Oklahoma, New York, Chicago, Michigan, Wisconsin, Missouri and South Dakota.

Above: the CN Tower is in the bottom right of the photo.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm enjoying the day-by-day notes of my favorite doc team in Toronto, which looks a lot colder--temperature-wise--than NYC. Love all the photos, but am curious about the results of the Big Contest. Has it receeded into the background as you mingle with the doc glitterati (ha! ha! ha!)? Maya--I have a copy of The Cats of Mirikitani, so you can see it after all. Looking forward to hearing about your triumphs in Toronto upon your return. Have fun and keep on blogging, Ted. It's great to vicarioush share your trip this way.
Deirdre

rackle said...

Looks like you're near Queen's Park. Also looks like Spring is lagging behind in Toronto.

Mere said...

Ok, I am dying to know how it went. For some reason I am willing to bet you are all still sleeping after the big celebrations! Hope you all had a great time.

meredith

Ted Fisher said...

Thanks, Deirdre.

We've started to mentally prepare for next year's IDC, so maybe we'll be back again....

tf

Ted Fisher said...

Hi Rackle,

Yes, it's looked a bit gloomy here the last three days, but today the sun has come out. Those of us still in town are hoping to get one last breakfast in before flying out....

tf

Ted Fisher said...

Hi Mere,

Just posted our result, will post the full awards as soon as we can sort those out.

We're planning to compete again next year, so come back and join us in March 2008....

tf

Annie said...

Hi all,
Just checked in and was thrilled to see BEST SOUNDTRACK. You are now award-winning filmmakers! See you all soon and congratulations on what seems to be a great experience.
Annie

Ted Fisher said...

Thanks, Annie.

I think we're all in agreement that we learned a ton through the whole experience.

While we were there, we sent off an application to another festival as well, so maybe we'll be blogging that sometime soon....

tf