Codes and Modes with Brian Winston

Codes and Modes: A conference about contemporary documentary exposed me to a genre, obscure, rewarding and informative.  Discussing on the ideals of documentary, guest speakers unlocked a new understanding in the art of documentary.  Guest speaker Brian Winston, a native of Britain shared his words on various pieces of footage whereby he addressed the art of documentary as a whole.  Starting with “Cannibal Tours,” a film about Stone Age men in New Guinea in the present era, Winston analyzes the director’s intentions, despite his empathy with his protagonists, the director reveals the stereotype in which we objectify and dehumanize people from an unknown culture. His documentary demands that we see the humanity in his subjects whom he develops a relationship with in the unraveling of his production.  Winston’s remarks address how a camera has the power to manipulate and reinforce an image we perceive in everyday life although it is not necessarily a good thing.  Reiterating his concern for documentary success, he says, “it’s a curious business we’re all in.” Going down the chart of top documentary productions in the world, going down the list, by time you get to 150, the productions are not making their production value money.  There are various documentary production techniques, such as reenactment stories and representative works which Winston calls a “jaded audience assumption,” triggering an audience despite the story’s realism to gain desire by viewers while the content has lost its quality.  The manipulation of images enforced by digital technologies create and duplicate images, while adding to the quality, at the same time it steals the stand-alone evidence of its believability  as a true image as opposed to an edit.  Documentary production is a challenge in this day, however it is so extravagant that there may be an area for you that has yet to be covered. Documentarys' strive for realism and persuasion result in a complex moving image digitalizing data which otherwise does not exist.  It gives us the opportunity to perceive another’s work, and shape our individual interpretations.