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The Open Frame Reader: Unreeling the
Documentary Film
The Open Frame Reader is a collection of views, opinions, perspectives and "takes" on the documentary film. Disparate islands of thought are strung together with a common concern for the revival and understanding of this genre, yet the varied perspectives blend to form a seamless whole. The concept of reality, central to the documentary genre, has been handled with sensitivity and honesty. Sanjay Kak in his "take" on reality emphasises that the documentary "is not just life, but an argument about it". The essay of Raqs Media Collective, talks about the construction of a frame of reality based upon the cameraman’s sensory capacities and the director’s slant on reality. The reality of a documentary film then is not a simplistic rendering of the "truth" but a "construct" of the "camera eye", which reflects the perspective and cognition of the director. When Ruchir Joshi likens the documentary to a butterfly emerging from a cocoon "in which chemistry, electronics, thought and feeling all have come together", she is obviously clueing us to the director’s "take" on reality. Ranu Sharma sums up this reality "construct" when she pithily says: Something of the real is lost Something else is found. More than sound, more than sight. More than life, more like life. A serious discussion of a film genre would, however, be incomplete without a detailing of its technical aspects. Rajeev Mehrotra, a good editor that he is, weaves in sections that enlarge upon cinematography, editing, montage and sound. Fortunately, he is able to rescue such discussions from boredom by picking up essays that simplify technical terms for the reader. Uma Shankar’s essay on sound recording makes film gizmos like "modulo meter" or "shot gun" seem user-friendly. The book also takes a wry but honest look at what ails the documentary genre. With typical management-guru aplomb, it does not stop at the problem, but offers the beginnings of a solution through an "India’s Quest" project. The essays and musings of The Open Frame Reader present an interesting argument, which draws the reader into the pro-documentary camp. Caught in the spell, the reader declares with Mukul Kesavan: "Why would any documentary filmmaker swap that real magic for the shop-worn tricks of Art?"
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THE documentary genre is
regarded as a poor cousin of commercial cinema. For most of us, a
documentary is a factual and boring delineation of the real world, which
we would rather forgo for the magical delights of commercial cinema. It
is hardly strange that great documentary filmmakers like Anand
Patwardhan, Tapan Bose and Shubredeep Chakraborty are little known than
their more glamorous counterparts or that films like Jang aur Aman,
Beyond Genocide and Final Solutions have garnered critical
acclaim, but commercially sunk without a trace. Financial constraints,
unorganised distribution and limited dissemination by a forum like
Doordarshan add to an unpalatable scenario. A constant tussle with the
Censor Board is the final nail in the coffin. The power and potential of
the documentary film remains stifled.