What We Choose to Emphasize

 Shaelene G. Moler

Prof. Richard Simpson

History and Theory of Documentary Film

29 September 2020

What We Choose to Emphasize

When watching this week’s film Man with a Movie Camera, there was one frequent occurrence that caught my attention, and that was the selective emphasis that the filmmaker seemed to have on certain aspects of city life. In the first part of the film, I noticed the substantial emphasis on transportation, towards the middle there was a strong emphasis on female bodies, and the female experience, and as the film neared the end, it emphasized people’s reaction to film as well as the process of film production. In addition to this, there were aspects of this film that seemed to be staged, reproduced, and artistically edited, that all seemed to push for a representation of life rather than a documentation of it, making it a debatable piece of documentary film to begin with. So, what was the purpose of all this? 

This film brought me back to one of our earlier readings which was Comolli and Narboni’s Cinema/Ideology/Criticism, which thoroughly discussed the political atmosphere of film. In this reading, Comolli and Narboni state “Clearly, the cinema ‘reproduces’ reality: this is what a camera and film stock are for—so says the ideology. But the tools and techniques of filmmaking are a part of ‘reality’ themselves, and furthermore ‘reality’ is nothing but an expression of the prevailing ideology” (Comolli and Narboni 814- 815). Considering this, I personally see Man with a Movie Camera as a film that both challenges and accepts the common ideology, at least when it comes to women in the film. 

Although the film does explore the female experience in some ways as something beautiful and challenging (for example, when the woman is signing divorce papers, she shields her face, and the birthing scene), for the most part, there are many scenes showing women beautifying themselves (makeup, hair salons, etc.), and there is also a huge emphasis on the female body in the beach scene. So how does this apply to the dominant ideology? 

    Considering this film was filmed, created, and first published in the 1920’s, this is when women first truly started exploring more aspects of individual freedom, at least in the United States. Talks of “the new woman” were coming about as more women were seeking financial and social independence, and many people were against this, as well as many people were for it. This film, explores the female independence, without revealing too much about where the filmmakers personal belief on it presides, likely because of the society in which it took place, and instead, shows women in more of a stereotypical depiction, while also emphasizing their beauty as human beings. It ultimately left me questioning if this film could be considered progressional because of this, or if it can just be considered a commentary.