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initiate an analysis of documenrary

as a

eyenqand its reprejgltatiqn (that is, ro propose

hlt interactive) is opening section will juxtapose the lgli*-of filgrailcorcl r-i the rrs:-of voie-ovel. This is nor an arbitrary selection, but a decisio cffiblish is book's underlying thesis that d"@

qerp,s_&icl"nesotis4o*=&Wrulk) at the two remain ditinct

tbn of (a) the componenr of documentary that uniquely exemplifier the ideal of e non-fictional image's 'p.trity' (film as record), and (b) e componenr that mct overdy illusates e inuusion of bias, subjectivity and conscious strucnrring of those 'pure' events (narration). In L97l the German documentary dramatist Peter weiss offered a definition of documentary theatre that is pertinent to is argument. In'The Materials and e Models', weiss argues that, qilst documentary eatre 'refrains from all invention; it takes authentic mate rial and puts it on e stge, unaltered in content, edited in form' (weiss 97I: 4l), it also 'presents facts for examination' and 'takes sides' (p. 42). weiss mani, festly does not automatically perceive e imposition of a strucrure (wheer rough editing or other means) to mean e loss of objectivity, instead he advocates documentary eatre rooted in dialectical analysis, e principal components of which are e raw material and the theatrical model. His intenrion in a play such as The Iwestigation - as he intimates ater in 'The Materials and e Models' - is to extract from e material 'universal truths', to supply ,an historical context' and to draw attention to 'other possible consequences' (p. 43) of e events encompassed by e play. The raw material is incapable of
drawing out or articulating

e trus,

motives or underlying causes

contains and implies, so it falls to e writer to exrract is general framework. 'w'eiss's notes towards a definition of documentary theatre suggest at docu mentary is born of a negotiation between two potentialy conflicting factors: e real and its representation; but raer an perceive this to be a problem that must be surmounted - as is perceived in much documentary film eory weiss accepts this propensity towards a dialectical understanding of e factual word to be an asset and a virtue. The intention here is to examine docurrientary film along e lines at weiss uses to exa-mine documentary theatre. Although eoretical orthod.oxy

it bo

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Ground. rules atm

so that

te distinction

insible

ine. Part of e inte

ese opening par documentary 'canon' as it has been laid out by reinstating some of ider e e influen-

tial figures who have not conformed to e history imposed by much documentary eorg and who have adopted an attitude to eir filmmaking
comparable to

at of Weiss towards e creation of documentary eatre. Bq

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