Markku Lehmuskallio is one of the most outstanding documentary filmmakers in Finland. Together wi... more Markku Lehmuskallio is one of the most outstanding documentary filmmakers in Finland. Together with his companion Anastasia Lapsui he has made documentaries about Arctic indiginous people in the area of Canada, Greenland, Nordic countries and Russia. Films have been considered ethnographic and the reseption by critics, scholars and audience has been sometimes even romantizising. In this article their works are discussed from the point of view of colonialism and colonial studies. Article is in Finnish.
Artikkeli kuvaa suomalaisen 1990–2000-lukujen dokumenttielokuvan niin sanotun kultakauden syntyä,... more Artikkeli kuvaa suomalaisen 1990–2000-lukujen dokumenttielokuvan niin sanotun kultakauden syntyä, kukoistusta ja päättymistä mediaekologisesta näkökulmasta. Mediaekologia on jo 1950-luvulla syntynyt suuntaus, jossa biologiasta ja ekologiasta lähtöisin olevia käsitteitä sovelletaan median tutkimukseen. Mediaekologia on saanut viime vuosina uutta nostetta. Se tuntuu tarjoavan metaforia ja selitysmalleja, jotka auttavat ymmärtämään ja analysoimaan muuttuvaa mediamaisemaa. Artikkeli käy ensin läpi yleisesti mediaekologian virtauksia ja historiaa ja pohtii sen jälkeen miten hyvin mediaekologiset mallit sopivat konkreettiseen historialliseen ilmiöön, tässä tapauksessa suomalaisen dokumenttielokuvakulttuurin tarkasteluun. Miten dokumenttielokuvan kansallinen ja kansainvälinen mediaympäristö on muuttunut? Minkälaisia historiallisia, rakenteellisia, institutionaalisia ja sisäisiä muutoksia on havaittavissa suomalaisessa dokumenttielokuvassa? Miten siihen ovat vaikuttaneet rahoitusjärjestelmän muutokset, kansainvälistyminen, yleisön uudet katsomistottumukset tai digitalisoiminen?
Kirjoitus perustuu osin kirjoittajan, Pietari Käävän ja Dafydd Sills-Jonesin tammikuussa 2023 julkaistuun kirjaan Documentary in Finland: History, Practice and Policy.
Having established itself as an award-winning and ground-breaking documentary cinema in the 1990s... more Having established itself as an award-winning and ground-breaking documentary cinema in the 1990s and 2000s, Finnish documentary has experienced many of the challenges that have beset the form since the mid-2010s, including the digital disruption of production and distribution traditions. How has documentary in Finland met these challenges, and what does that say about the country’s way of making films? This book examines the ecology of Finland’s documentary filmmaking milieu by
framing and analysing a series of encounters with its most important financiers, producers and directors. What emerges is a portrait of an interconnected ecology of relationships and practices, typical of a small nation documentary cinema and of the traditionally communitarian nature of Nordic film cultures. Through this analysis, the ruptures and challenges within this ecosystem are addressed, where the values of collaboration and the coherence of a national culture are challenged by the forces of change.
Prices are subject to change and do not include shipping and handling. CHF-RRP incl. VAT (valid f... more Prices are subject to change and do not include shipping and handling. CHF-RRP incl. VAT (valid for Switzerland). € D-fixed retail price incl. VAT (valid for Germany and EU customers without VAT Reg No).
Lähikuva – audiovisuaalisen kulttuurin tieteellinen julkaisu
Poliittinen dokumenttielokuva on kokenut uuden nousun 2000-luvulla. Muodoltaan elokuvat ovat usei... more Poliittinen dokumenttielokuva on kokenut uuden nousun 2000-luvulla. Muodoltaan elokuvat ovat usein retorisia, ne pyrkivät todistamaan, väittämään ja vakuuttamaan katsojan. Artikkelissa tarkastellaan dokumenttielokuvan retoriikkaa ja retorisia keinoja-niin suoria kuin epäsuoriakin-kolmen ilmastonmuutosta käsittelevän dokumenttielokuvan kautta. Miten meitä katsojia puhutellaan ja miten meihin pyritään vaikuttamaan?
ABSTRACT There has been a boom in the number of political documentaries since 9/11. Quite often, ... more ABSTRACT There has been a boom in the number of political documentaries since 9/11. Quite often, the form of these documentaries has been rhetorical. They seek to argue, prove, demonstrate and convince the audience about a particular point. This article studies rhetorical forms and rhetorical expressions in documentary films using as an example three documentaries about climate change. Davis Guggenheim's An Inconvenient Truth (2006) looks like an illustrated lesson, but includes also the personal story of Al Gore. Not Evil, Just Wrong (2009) by Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer is an anti-environmentalist film, which denies the existence of global warming. John Webster's Recipes for Disaster (2008) is using clear narrative form and follows the filmmaker's family trying to cope for one year without oil. The methods of classical rhetoric are adapted to analyse these films. Besides argumentation (logos), also emotions (pathos) and matters connected to credibility (ethos) are essential. Guggenheim's film is also adopting features of monomyth by Joseph Campbell and hero's journey by Christopher Vogler. Webster's main character can be seen through old Christian myth of everyman. In documentary film rhetoric, narrative and other means of expression intertwine with each other. Rhetorical means can be part of the story and sometimes a story can be the best way to make an argument, as in Webster's case. It can be difficult to isolate rhetorical means from other narrative styles and cinematic elements and levels. Rhetorical documentary film is an organic entity.
His doctoral dissertation (2006) dealt with the process of documentary filmmaking. Additionally, ... more His doctoral dissertation (2006) dealt with the process of documentary filmmaking. Additionally, he has published a study on Lasse Naukkarinen, a veteran Finnish documentary filmmaker, three textbooks and several articles. Jukka Kortti has the title of docent (Associate Professor) in Economic and Social History at the University of Helsinki and in Television Studies at Aalto University. He is a media historian who has published two extensive studies on the history of Finnish television. He has just finished a textbook/overview on the history of media. At the moment, he is working as an acting university lecturer (assistant professor) in contemporary history at the University of Helsinki.
Documentaryman! - Lasse Naukkarinen´s films and their creation The study examines the career of d... more Documentaryman! - Lasse Naukkarinen´s films and their creation The study examines the career of documentary filmmaker Lasse Naukkarinen as whole, his films, their creation and the work methods of the director. The aim is to examine the methodology and work phases from within. The study is best described as practice-led or practice-based. The materials constitute of Naukkarinen’s films, written documents such as script drafts and other plans, personal notes and diaries of the director, interviews of Naukkarinen and his colleagues and general research literature. The interviews were semi-structured thematic interviews and they have been completed between 2011 and 2013. In accordance with the qualitative research content analysis, the data and analysis have directed the interpretation. The approach is best described as phenomenological and hermeneutical. The director’s career can be divided into seven chronological phases: 1. Political cinema phase 1968–1975 2. Experimentation with fiction 1976–1979 3. Development of essay form 1979–1982 4. Period of observational cinema 1983–1995 5. Interactive cinema 1996–1998 6. Personal documentary 1999–2004 7. Late period films 2005– Naukkarinen begins with political agitation films, discovers essay form and focuses on observational cinema, until the possibilities provided by new technology take him to the area of personal documentary. The director has made films during six decades. At the same time, society has experienced great transformations, while documentary films have also changed. Naukkarinen’s production reflects the development phases of Finnish documentary films. While the filmmaking changes gradually, a cyclical element of the themes can also be observed. The subjects and themes of Naukkarinen’s production form clear and very long cycles. He may return to the same subject, which has simmered under other projects for decades. The phases of the career could also be described using the modes developed by Bill Nichols. The first films were in accordance with the expository mode, based on commentaries, which provided meaning to the presented subjects. This was followed by a long period where the films represented the observational mode. As the director switched to lightweight video equipment in 1996, the films conformed to participatory mode and by Once Upon a Time There Was a Utopia (2004) they belonged to reflexive mode. In addition, Naukkarinen’s films contain some characteristics of poetic and performative modes. For example, in Madame E. (1997) performativity is highly evident. Films are created within lenghty processes. The idea may simmer for years, even a decade before actually capturing it on film. Films following a certain subject extremely long are typical for Naukkarinen, too. Three-year shooting periods are common and the longest projects can last up to a decade. Instead, the duration for editing and post-production correspond to industry norms. The production processes often do not conform to the traditional production model where progress is made logically and with clear distinction between work phases. Instead, work phases are intertwined. It is common for Naukkarinen to shoot and write the film at the same time. He conducts comprehensive advance research and produces a lot of paper: drafts and outlines, but not the actual script. Drafting the form for the film and writing documents continues all the way through editing. Similarly, the shooting phase is not clearly defined. The director seems to glide from pre-production to the actual production phase. He continuously films all the events around him without necessary knowing what the material will later be used for. It is typical for Naukkarinen’s methods to keep the process open, have interactivity during shooting, utilise intuition, improvise during shooting, collect ideas and materials and use associations both during shooting and editing. For Naukkarinen, shooting is thinking. It is also writing with a camera. This has allowed him to fulfil the ideal introduced by Alexandre Astruc in the late 1940s on the camera stylo; a thought that the auteur, author, 'writes' directly with the camera without having to rely on the script. The essence of the film lies not in the text on paper, but in reality and in the moment. Vivian Sobchack has classified six ways how a documentary filmmaker sees people. Originally, these were associated with presenting death in cinema, but Bill Nichols and Linda Williams developed them further to different implied ethical stances, which they call `gazes´. Williams classifies the viewing based on how actively the filmmaker interferes with the subjects. The scale ranges from neutral to a committed gaze. The gazes are: clinical or professional, accidental, helpless, endangered, humane and interventional gaze. The early films in Naukkarinen's career represent the clinical gaze. As interactivity increases, the humane gaze becomes increasingly dominant. In late period...
IntroductionThere is a lot of research about religion and film concerning fiction films, but not ... more IntroductionThere is a lot of research about religion and film concerning fiction films, but not very much dealing with documentary film, and practically none at all from the point of view of practice led or artistic research.I am a documentary film-maker but also a researcher, specialized in practice led research. This is also my point of view in this article. I have directed several films where spirituality or spiritual beliefs have been one of the topics. This time I am analysing two of my films: Kusum (2000) and Leap (2012) and reflecting the film-making process of these films.Although these films are meant for wider audiences and they are not strictly scientific, there is a strong scientific background in both films and they are based on serious research. Via these films and the experience of making them, I ponder the questions of presenting religious or spiritual experience in documentary film. How can the invisible be made visible in a visual medium? This question also has be...
Writing the script for a documentary film can be problematic. According to some documentary filmm... more Writing the script for a documentary film can be problematic. According to some documentary filmmakers, it is not possible at all, because one cannot know beforehand what is going to happen. On the other hand, some attempt to produce a written script is often required to obtain financing for a documentary project. This article deals with different work practices and forms of documentary script. It analyses two case studies: the writer’s own films A Man from the Congo River (2010) and Kusum (2000). The first is the story of an engineer who worked in colonial Congo at the beginning of the twentieth century. It is based on diaries and other historical material, and therefore it was possible to construct a very precise script for the film. Kusum is an observational documentary film following the healing of a young Indian girl. The script was produced prior to production, but during the shooting process many core elements changed, including the main character and storyline. The form and dramaturgy of documentary films are created in the filmmaking process and in dialogue between the film-maker and real people. A documentary script can be considered a hypothesis about the reality that the film-maker will encounter via the process of filmmaking. Instead of ‘a screen idea’ we could speak about ‘a documentary idea’.
This article focuses on voices that are heard in Finnish documentaries. In this context, the conc... more This article focuses on voices that are heard in Finnish documentaries. In this context, the concept of voice indicates different points of view and expressions which are present in a film. In addition to the voice of the film-maker, the voices of subjects comprise essential components of documentaries. Voices are created in the complicated film-making process. In a way, this consists of a game between intentions, plans and openness, a tension between the financing institutions and the film-maker’s ideals of freedom. These tensions and games imply that several voices can find their ways into finalised films: for instance, the voices of financiers and institutions, but also the voices of history and myths. Because several voices appear in documentary films and impact the film-making process at the same time, documentary films can be considered through the metaphor of choric expression. The concept of Bakhtinian polyphony is used to understand the present state of the documentary film in general and Finnish documentary film in particular.
There has been a boom in the number of political documentaries since 9/11. Quite often, the form ... more There has been a boom in the number of political documentaries since 9/11. Quite often, the form of these documentaries has been rhetorical. They seek to argue, prove, demonstrate and convince the audience about a particular point. This article studies rhetorical forms and rhetorical expressions in documentary films using as an example three documentaries about climate change. Davis Guggenheim's An Inconvenient Truth (2006) looks like an illustrated lesson, but includes also the personal story of Al Gore. Not Evil, Just Wrong (2009) by Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer is an anti-environmentalist film, which denies the existence of global warming. John Webster's Recipes for Disaster (2008) is using clear narrative form and follows the filmmaker's family trying to cope for one year without oil. The methods of classical rhetoric are adapted to analyse these films. Besides argumentation (logos), also emotions (pathos) and matters connected to credibility (ethos) are essenti...
Markku Lehmuskallio is one of the most outstanding documentary filmmakers in Finland. Together wi... more Markku Lehmuskallio is one of the most outstanding documentary filmmakers in Finland. Together with his companion Anastasia Lapsui he has made documentaries about Arctic indiginous people in the area of Canada, Greenland, Nordic countries and Russia. Films have been considered ethnographic and the reseption by critics, scholars and audience has been sometimes even romantizising. In this article their works are discussed from the point of view of colonialism and colonial studies. Article is in Finnish.
Artikkeli kuvaa suomalaisen 1990–2000-lukujen dokumenttielokuvan niin sanotun kultakauden syntyä,... more Artikkeli kuvaa suomalaisen 1990–2000-lukujen dokumenttielokuvan niin sanotun kultakauden syntyä, kukoistusta ja päättymistä mediaekologisesta näkökulmasta. Mediaekologia on jo 1950-luvulla syntynyt suuntaus, jossa biologiasta ja ekologiasta lähtöisin olevia käsitteitä sovelletaan median tutkimukseen. Mediaekologia on saanut viime vuosina uutta nostetta. Se tuntuu tarjoavan metaforia ja selitysmalleja, jotka auttavat ymmärtämään ja analysoimaan muuttuvaa mediamaisemaa. Artikkeli käy ensin läpi yleisesti mediaekologian virtauksia ja historiaa ja pohtii sen jälkeen miten hyvin mediaekologiset mallit sopivat konkreettiseen historialliseen ilmiöön, tässä tapauksessa suomalaisen dokumenttielokuvakulttuurin tarkasteluun. Miten dokumenttielokuvan kansallinen ja kansainvälinen mediaympäristö on muuttunut? Minkälaisia historiallisia, rakenteellisia, institutionaalisia ja sisäisiä muutoksia on havaittavissa suomalaisessa dokumenttielokuvassa? Miten siihen ovat vaikuttaneet rahoitusjärjestelmän muutokset, kansainvälistyminen, yleisön uudet katsomistottumukset tai digitalisoiminen?
Kirjoitus perustuu osin kirjoittajan, Pietari Käävän ja Dafydd Sills-Jonesin tammikuussa 2023 julkaistuun kirjaan Documentary in Finland: History, Practice and Policy.
Having established itself as an award-winning and ground-breaking documentary cinema in the 1990s... more Having established itself as an award-winning and ground-breaking documentary cinema in the 1990s and 2000s, Finnish documentary has experienced many of the challenges that have beset the form since the mid-2010s, including the digital disruption of production and distribution traditions. How has documentary in Finland met these challenges, and what does that say about the country’s way of making films? This book examines the ecology of Finland’s documentary filmmaking milieu by
framing and analysing a series of encounters with its most important financiers, producers and directors. What emerges is a portrait of an interconnected ecology of relationships and practices, typical of a small nation documentary cinema and of the traditionally communitarian nature of Nordic film cultures. Through this analysis, the ruptures and challenges within this ecosystem are addressed, where the values of collaboration and the coherence of a national culture are challenged by the forces of change.
Prices are subject to change and do not include shipping and handling. CHF-RRP incl. VAT (valid f... more Prices are subject to change and do not include shipping and handling. CHF-RRP incl. VAT (valid for Switzerland). € D-fixed retail price incl. VAT (valid for Germany and EU customers without VAT Reg No).
Lähikuva – audiovisuaalisen kulttuurin tieteellinen julkaisu
Poliittinen dokumenttielokuva on kokenut uuden nousun 2000-luvulla. Muodoltaan elokuvat ovat usei... more Poliittinen dokumenttielokuva on kokenut uuden nousun 2000-luvulla. Muodoltaan elokuvat ovat usein retorisia, ne pyrkivät todistamaan, väittämään ja vakuuttamaan katsojan. Artikkelissa tarkastellaan dokumenttielokuvan retoriikkaa ja retorisia keinoja-niin suoria kuin epäsuoriakin-kolmen ilmastonmuutosta käsittelevän dokumenttielokuvan kautta. Miten meitä katsojia puhutellaan ja miten meihin pyritään vaikuttamaan?
ABSTRACT There has been a boom in the number of political documentaries since 9/11. Quite often, ... more ABSTRACT There has been a boom in the number of political documentaries since 9/11. Quite often, the form of these documentaries has been rhetorical. They seek to argue, prove, demonstrate and convince the audience about a particular point. This article studies rhetorical forms and rhetorical expressions in documentary films using as an example three documentaries about climate change. Davis Guggenheim's An Inconvenient Truth (2006) looks like an illustrated lesson, but includes also the personal story of Al Gore. Not Evil, Just Wrong (2009) by Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer is an anti-environmentalist film, which denies the existence of global warming. John Webster's Recipes for Disaster (2008) is using clear narrative form and follows the filmmaker's family trying to cope for one year without oil. The methods of classical rhetoric are adapted to analyse these films. Besides argumentation (logos), also emotions (pathos) and matters connected to credibility (ethos) are essential. Guggenheim's film is also adopting features of monomyth by Joseph Campbell and hero's journey by Christopher Vogler. Webster's main character can be seen through old Christian myth of everyman. In documentary film rhetoric, narrative and other means of expression intertwine with each other. Rhetorical means can be part of the story and sometimes a story can be the best way to make an argument, as in Webster's case. It can be difficult to isolate rhetorical means from other narrative styles and cinematic elements and levels. Rhetorical documentary film is an organic entity.
His doctoral dissertation (2006) dealt with the process of documentary filmmaking. Additionally, ... more His doctoral dissertation (2006) dealt with the process of documentary filmmaking. Additionally, he has published a study on Lasse Naukkarinen, a veteran Finnish documentary filmmaker, three textbooks and several articles. Jukka Kortti has the title of docent (Associate Professor) in Economic and Social History at the University of Helsinki and in Television Studies at Aalto University. He is a media historian who has published two extensive studies on the history of Finnish television. He has just finished a textbook/overview on the history of media. At the moment, he is working as an acting university lecturer (assistant professor) in contemporary history at the University of Helsinki.
Documentaryman! - Lasse Naukkarinen´s films and their creation The study examines the career of d... more Documentaryman! - Lasse Naukkarinen´s films and their creation The study examines the career of documentary filmmaker Lasse Naukkarinen as whole, his films, their creation and the work methods of the director. The aim is to examine the methodology and work phases from within. The study is best described as practice-led or practice-based. The materials constitute of Naukkarinen’s films, written documents such as script drafts and other plans, personal notes and diaries of the director, interviews of Naukkarinen and his colleagues and general research literature. The interviews were semi-structured thematic interviews and they have been completed between 2011 and 2013. In accordance with the qualitative research content analysis, the data and analysis have directed the interpretation. The approach is best described as phenomenological and hermeneutical. The director’s career can be divided into seven chronological phases: 1. Political cinema phase 1968–1975 2. Experimentation with fiction 1976–1979 3. Development of essay form 1979–1982 4. Period of observational cinema 1983–1995 5. Interactive cinema 1996–1998 6. Personal documentary 1999–2004 7. Late period films 2005– Naukkarinen begins with political agitation films, discovers essay form and focuses on observational cinema, until the possibilities provided by new technology take him to the area of personal documentary. The director has made films during six decades. At the same time, society has experienced great transformations, while documentary films have also changed. Naukkarinen’s production reflects the development phases of Finnish documentary films. While the filmmaking changes gradually, a cyclical element of the themes can also be observed. The subjects and themes of Naukkarinen’s production form clear and very long cycles. He may return to the same subject, which has simmered under other projects for decades. The phases of the career could also be described using the modes developed by Bill Nichols. The first films were in accordance with the expository mode, based on commentaries, which provided meaning to the presented subjects. This was followed by a long period where the films represented the observational mode. As the director switched to lightweight video equipment in 1996, the films conformed to participatory mode and by Once Upon a Time There Was a Utopia (2004) they belonged to reflexive mode. In addition, Naukkarinen’s films contain some characteristics of poetic and performative modes. For example, in Madame E. (1997) performativity is highly evident. Films are created within lenghty processes. The idea may simmer for years, even a decade before actually capturing it on film. Films following a certain subject extremely long are typical for Naukkarinen, too. Three-year shooting periods are common and the longest projects can last up to a decade. Instead, the duration for editing and post-production correspond to industry norms. The production processes often do not conform to the traditional production model where progress is made logically and with clear distinction between work phases. Instead, work phases are intertwined. It is common for Naukkarinen to shoot and write the film at the same time. He conducts comprehensive advance research and produces a lot of paper: drafts and outlines, but not the actual script. Drafting the form for the film and writing documents continues all the way through editing. Similarly, the shooting phase is not clearly defined. The director seems to glide from pre-production to the actual production phase. He continuously films all the events around him without necessary knowing what the material will later be used for. It is typical for Naukkarinen’s methods to keep the process open, have interactivity during shooting, utilise intuition, improvise during shooting, collect ideas and materials and use associations both during shooting and editing. For Naukkarinen, shooting is thinking. It is also writing with a camera. This has allowed him to fulfil the ideal introduced by Alexandre Astruc in the late 1940s on the camera stylo; a thought that the auteur, author, 'writes' directly with the camera without having to rely on the script. The essence of the film lies not in the text on paper, but in reality and in the moment. Vivian Sobchack has classified six ways how a documentary filmmaker sees people. Originally, these were associated with presenting death in cinema, but Bill Nichols and Linda Williams developed them further to different implied ethical stances, which they call `gazes´. Williams classifies the viewing based on how actively the filmmaker interferes with the subjects. The scale ranges from neutral to a committed gaze. The gazes are: clinical or professional, accidental, helpless, endangered, humane and interventional gaze. The early films in Naukkarinen's career represent the clinical gaze. As interactivity increases, the humane gaze becomes increasingly dominant. In late period...
IntroductionThere is a lot of research about religion and film concerning fiction films, but not ... more IntroductionThere is a lot of research about religion and film concerning fiction films, but not very much dealing with documentary film, and practically none at all from the point of view of practice led or artistic research.I am a documentary film-maker but also a researcher, specialized in practice led research. This is also my point of view in this article. I have directed several films where spirituality or spiritual beliefs have been one of the topics. This time I am analysing two of my films: Kusum (2000) and Leap (2012) and reflecting the film-making process of these films.Although these films are meant for wider audiences and they are not strictly scientific, there is a strong scientific background in both films and they are based on serious research. Via these films and the experience of making them, I ponder the questions of presenting religious or spiritual experience in documentary film. How can the invisible be made visible in a visual medium? This question also has be...
Writing the script for a documentary film can be problematic. According to some documentary filmm... more Writing the script for a documentary film can be problematic. According to some documentary filmmakers, it is not possible at all, because one cannot know beforehand what is going to happen. On the other hand, some attempt to produce a written script is often required to obtain financing for a documentary project. This article deals with different work practices and forms of documentary script. It analyses two case studies: the writer’s own films A Man from the Congo River (2010) and Kusum (2000). The first is the story of an engineer who worked in colonial Congo at the beginning of the twentieth century. It is based on diaries and other historical material, and therefore it was possible to construct a very precise script for the film. Kusum is an observational documentary film following the healing of a young Indian girl. The script was produced prior to production, but during the shooting process many core elements changed, including the main character and storyline. The form and dramaturgy of documentary films are created in the filmmaking process and in dialogue between the film-maker and real people. A documentary script can be considered a hypothesis about the reality that the film-maker will encounter via the process of filmmaking. Instead of ‘a screen idea’ we could speak about ‘a documentary idea’.
This article focuses on voices that are heard in Finnish documentaries. In this context, the conc... more This article focuses on voices that are heard in Finnish documentaries. In this context, the concept of voice indicates different points of view and expressions which are present in a film. In addition to the voice of the film-maker, the voices of subjects comprise essential components of documentaries. Voices are created in the complicated film-making process. In a way, this consists of a game between intentions, plans and openness, a tension between the financing institutions and the film-maker’s ideals of freedom. These tensions and games imply that several voices can find their ways into finalised films: for instance, the voices of financiers and institutions, but also the voices of history and myths. Because several voices appear in documentary films and impact the film-making process at the same time, documentary films can be considered through the metaphor of choric expression. The concept of Bakhtinian polyphony is used to understand the present state of the documentary film in general and Finnish documentary film in particular.
There has been a boom in the number of political documentaries since 9/11. Quite often, the form ... more There has been a boom in the number of political documentaries since 9/11. Quite often, the form of these documentaries has been rhetorical. They seek to argue, prove, demonstrate and convince the audience about a particular point. This article studies rhetorical forms and rhetorical expressions in documentary films using as an example three documentaries about climate change. Davis Guggenheim's An Inconvenient Truth (2006) looks like an illustrated lesson, but includes also the personal story of Al Gore. Not Evil, Just Wrong (2009) by Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer is an anti-environmentalist film, which denies the existence of global warming. John Webster's Recipes for Disaster (2008) is using clear narrative form and follows the filmmaker's family trying to cope for one year without oil. The methods of classical rhetoric are adapted to analyse these films. Besides argumentation (logos), also emotions (pathos) and matters connected to credibility (ethos) are essenti...
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Papers by Jouko Aaltonen
Kirjoitus perustuu osin kirjoittajan, Pietari Käävän ja Dafydd Sills-Jonesin tammikuussa 2023 julkaistuun kirjaan Documentary in Finland: History, Practice and Policy.
framing and analysing a series of encounters with its most important financiers, producers and directors. What emerges is a portrait of an interconnected ecology of relationships and practices, typical of a small nation documentary cinema and of the traditionally communitarian nature of Nordic film cultures. Through this analysis, the ruptures and challenges within this ecosystem are addressed, where the values of collaboration and the coherence of a national culture are challenged by the forces of change.
Kirjoitus perustuu osin kirjoittajan, Pietari Käävän ja Dafydd Sills-Jonesin tammikuussa 2023 julkaistuun kirjaan Documentary in Finland: History, Practice and Policy.
framing and analysing a series of encounters with its most important financiers, producers and directors. What emerges is a portrait of an interconnected ecology of relationships and practices, typical of a small nation documentary cinema and of the traditionally communitarian nature of Nordic film cultures. Through this analysis, the ruptures and challenges within this ecosystem are addressed, where the values of collaboration and the coherence of a national culture are challenged by the forces of change.