What a Documentary Is, After All

Author(s): Carl Plantinga

Source: The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 63, No. 2 (Spring, 2005), pp. 105-
117
Published by: Wiley on behalf of The American Society for Aesthetics
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 CARL PLANTINGA

What a Documentary Is, After All

The question of how best to define the docu- Even so circumscribed, the category "docu-
mentary film and video and to distinguish it mentary" embodies a wide range of films in the
from the fiction film continues to fascinate and various moving-image media. Documentary
baffle philosophers and film theorists. It is clear types can be variously categorized; the most
that the special nature of the film medium-and influential conceptual mapping comes from
in particular its use of photographic images and Bill Nichols, a film scholar who proposes six
sound recordings-has proven particularly dif- subgenres or modes of the documentary:
ficult to conceptualize in relation to the fiction/ expository, observational, poetic, participatory,
nonfiction film distinction. reflexive, and performative.2 The modes each
In this paper I offer a characterization of the emerged at a particular time, some have come
documentary that can account for the visual and into and fallen out of favor, and all are subject
aural nature of the medium and that furthers our to the vagaries of fashion and critical practice.
understanding of what we mean when we use Yet films continue to be made in each of the
the word 'documentary.' I call my theory a modes and so they remain a viable way to chart
characterization rather than a definition, the documentary terrain. As I will demonstrate,
because rather than posit necessary and suffi- any attempt to characterize the documentary
cient conditions, I will be content to identify must take into account the differing natures of
and describe the central tendencies of the typ- these various subgenres.
ical, or usual, documentary film. It would be useful to begin by identifying and
Terminological confusion often results from briefly examining the two best candidates for
various uses of the word 'documentary' and the traditional definitions of the documentary.
phrase 'nonfiction film.' In its most expansive These are what I call the Documentary as
sense, a nonfiction film is any film not fictional, Indexical Record (DIR) and the Documentary
for example, instructional films, advertisements, as Assertion (DA) accounts. In the next two
corporate films, or historical or biographical sections of this essay I give descriptions of the
documentaries. The Scottish filmmaker and the- basic claims of these accounts, noting internal
orist John Grierson called the documentary the problems and proposing a plausible statement
"creative treatment of actuality," a characteriza- of each. In the third section, I show how both
tion that simultaneously distinguishes the docu- accounts fail as traditional definitions of the
mentary from the fiction film (not thought to be documentary. In Sections IV and V, I develop
primarily a treatment of actuality) and the non- an alternative account, in which I argue that the
fiction film (not thought to be creative or dra- typical or usual documentary is what I call an
matic).' Although the distinction between "asserted veridical representation."
nonfiction film and documentary cannot bear
much theoretical weight, it might be useful to
think of the documentary as a subset of nonfic- I. DOCUMENTARY AS INDEXICAL RECORD

tion films, characterized by more aesthetic,

social, rhetorical, and/or political ambition than, Documentary as Indexical Record (DIR) accounts,
say, a corporate or instructional film. in their most plausible form, characterize
The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 63:2 Spring 2005

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 106 The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Critici

documentaries as films comprised predom- which a documentary is a mere recording of

inantly of moving photographic images that are subject (and not an interpretation of it), it
indexical records or traces of the pro-filmic nonetheless undeniable that the documents
scene(s).3 Charles Sanders Peirce defines an has relied on the power of the moving pho
indexical sign as one that bears a relationship of graph to "show us the world," and to do so w
causality or proximity to that which it repre- an authenticity that depends not only on the v
sents. He distinguishes the index from the icon, ual wealth and detail of the photograph, but a
which resembles its referent, and the symbol, on the indexical, causal bond between pho
which bears an arbitrary or purely conventional graph and pro-filmic scene.
relationship with its referent.4 Gregory Currie has recently taken up the D
Photographs and sound recordings can (and banner.8 To begin to describe Currie's theo
often do) function as icons, indices, and sym- we must first explore his notion of photograp]
bols. It is their indexicality, however, that has representation. Currie distinguishes betwc
been most intriguing for filmmakers and theo- what he calls "traces" and "testimonies." A t,
rists. It is a well-known claim that the photo- timony, for Curry, is a representation that i:
graph is in part the product of a series of record of "what someone thought the facts
mechanical cause-and-effect operations per- the matter were" (p. 287). Testimonies, unli
formed in and through a machine-the camera. traces, are thoroughly mediated by the p
Insofar as the photograph is produced by causal ducer's intentions. Moreover, persons are cal
processes governed by physical laws (and not ble of giving testimony about all kinds of thir
by human intentionality), this allows us to that might never have existed, while only r
impart a veracity to photographs that we do not things can leave traces of themselves. Examp
allow for a painting. The filmmaker often must of testimonies include paintings, drawings, h
choose what to shoot and how to shoot it; pho- tories, and journalism.
tography certainly involves intentions and plans Photographs, like footprints and death mas
on the part of the photographer. Nonetheless, are traces of the world left by the subjects the
the mechanical nature of the photograph's prov- selves. Photographs are traces in part becat
enance allows us to attribute to the photograph they are independent of belief in a way t)
an evidentiary status that we would not grant to paintings are not.9 The painter may hallucin
a painting. while painting and paint an empty room
DIR theories have often made much of the though it were full of apparitions. The pho
ability of the documentary photograph to record grapher, similarly hallucinating while pho
the world and tend to underestimate the crea- graphing the room, will be surprised to fin(
tive, interpretive nature of documentary film- photograph of an empty room. To some degr
making. Some early practitioners of direct then, the making of the photograph is indepei
cinema or cinema verit6 talked as though their ent of belief, and the photograph is a trace.
purpose were merely to record reality and leave Moving photographs in fiction films are a
all interpretation to the spectator. This led some to traces, however, so the use of photographs
think of documentaries as mere "re-presentations" traces cannot by itself define the documenta
of reality, or simple records, rather than creative Currie argues that the "ideal" documentary is
interpretations, of their subjects.6 Poststructur- filmically sustained narrative the constitutj
alist theorists were quick to note that no docu- film images of which represent only pho
mentary can perfectly re-present or reproduce graphically: they represent only what they
anything, and they declared the very idea of of' (p. 291). A fiction film may use an image
documentary to be suspect.7 The problem, Gregory Peck to represent the fictional charn
however, is not with the documentary, but with ter Atticus Finch. An ideal documentary,
confused theories of documentary; a solution contrast, "may not represent things and eve?
would be to provide a better conception of what other than the things and events they are tra(
a documentary actually is, as I attempt to do in of."
this essay. Let us leave aside for now Currie's proble
Though the practitioners of direct cinema and atic claim that documentaries must be nar
various theorists have overstated the degree to tives.1o Currie's account contains a fundamen

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Plantinga What a Documentary Is, After All 107

confusion that is more germane to the present For the purposes of this paper, then, we will
discussion. He sometimes (as above) implies formulate the DIR account to be claiming the
that a documentary is a film that uses photo- following: a documentary is a sustained dis-
graphs to represent what the photographs are course of narrative, categorical, rhetorical, or
traces of, such images being employed to sup- other form that makes use of moving or still
port an "asserted" narrative."1 At other times, photographic images predominantly as traces to
however, Currie writes that a documentary film represent what the photographic images are of.
itself is the trace of that which it represents. He
writes, for example, "to be a documentary the
thing in question must be a trace" (p. 289). II. DOCUMENTARY AS ASSERTION

These seem to be two quite different notions

of documentary. The former defines the docu- Documentary as Assertion (DA) accounts have
mentary as a filmic narrative supported by visi- been formulated in various ways, but their simi-
ble traces used to represent what they are of, larities legitimate taking them as a single cat-
while the latter defines a documentary itself as a egory of definition. In a 1987 essay, I made use
visible trace. But what would it mean to claim of Nicholas Wolterstorff's theory of projected
that a documentary film is a trace? Were Currie worlds to argue that a nonfiction film is a film
to suggest that documentaries themselves are in which a filmmaker takes an assertive stance
traces in the same sense that individual photo- (as opposed to a fictive stance) toward the
graphs are, then Currie should want to attribute world projected by the film.13 Wolterstorff
the same kind of belief-independence to docu- argues that through every representational work
mentaries that he does to discrete photographic of art an agent projects a world, or state of
images. This cannot be done, however. affairs. When a writer or filmmaker takes an
Let us grant that individual documentary assertive stance toward the world projected
shots, in addition to their status as interpre- through the work, he or she asserts that the state
tations or expressions (through all the creative of affairs making up that projected world holds
choices involved in cinematography), are also or occurs in the actual world. When filmmakers
traces in the sense that Currie claims. Documen- take such a stance, I write, they "make asser-
tary films are also edited, and editing almost tions about the actual world" through the work.
invariably further interprets the event and When a text is recognized as a documentary,
involves intentionality in a way that indexical this "mobilizes relevant expectations on the part
signs such as traces do not. When one adds of the audience."14 Thus the fiction/nonfiction
music or titles or voice-over narration, add- film distinction was placed within the realm of
itional mediation between documentary and speech act theory.
subject is added. A documentary itself might be This proved to be the direction taken in subse-
considered a trace only under conditions that quent work by No6l Carroll and Trevor Ponech,
very few, if any, documentaries ever meet. The work that clarified the sense in which nonfiction
surveillance film would seem to be the best film could be said to fundamentally involve
example of such a documentary. 12 something like "assertion," an "assertive stance,"
Currie recognizes this problem and attempts to or "assertorial intentions."15 This is typically
resolve it by claiming that most documentary contrasted with fiction, in which the filmmaker
films have parts that are not documentary (such or writer takes a fictive stance toward the world
as bits of voice-over narration, nondiegetic of the work, presenting the state of affairs for our
music, animated maps, and so forth.). Yet this delectation, edification, education, amusement,
attempted resolution, rather than clearing up the or what have you, but not to have us believe that
issue, foregrounds the basic mistake in Currie's the state of affairs that constitute the world of the
formulation. Like many before him, Currie con- work holds in the actual world.
fuses a document with a documentary. A photo- In a conceptual analysis of the word
graphic document can be a physical trace, and 'documentary,' Carroll introduced the idea of the
documentaries often make use of such traces. "film of presumptive assertion," which he also
There are very few documentaries, however, that terms the film of "putative fact" and "presumptive
can legitimately be said to function as traces. fact."16 This essay is characteristically clear and

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 108 The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

insightful, even if his idea of presumptive asser- Trevor Ponech's work on these issues also
tion is faulty in one regard. Carroll invokes merits serious attention.20 Ponech writes that
what he calls an intention-response model of documentaries are "cinematic assertions," at
communication, which presupposes that the art- their core consisting of "the action of indica-
ist or maker communicates with an audience in tion." Ponech writes that in "producing non-
part by indicating that the audience is meant to fiction, a communicator uses some unit of
respond in a certain way. motion picture footage in an effort to assert that
In the film of presumptive assertion, "the something is (or was, or will be, or could be) the
filmmaker intends that the audience entertain case." "To perform a cinematic assertion," he
the propositional content of his film in thought writes, "is to employ a motion picture
as asserted."17 Carroll calls documentaries films medium.., .with the expressed intention that the
of presumptive assertion (rather than simply viewer form or continue to hold the attitude of
"films of assertion") in part because the audi- belief toward certain states of affairs, objects,
ence presumes that it is to entertain the proposi- situations, events, propositions, and so forth,
tions as asserted; this is the response part of the where the relevant states of affairs etc. need not
intention-response model of communication. actually exist."21 Ponech goes on to write about
In this case, one wants to know whether it is how various types of documentaries embody
the filmmaker's assertorial intentions or the audi- cinematic assertions.
ence' s response (or both) that defines a work as a Trevor Ponech, then, defines the nonfiction
film of presumptive assertion. Carroll's defin- film as one in which its makers "openly signal
ition explicitly makes audience response a their intention that viewers take the attitude of
necessary condition when he argues that one belief toward" the states of affairs presented in it.
requirement for a film to be a film of presump- His is an intentionalist theory, one that locates
tive assertion is that "a entertains p as an asserted the essence of nonfiction film in the intentions of
thought," where a is the (or an?) audience, and p the filmmaker(s). Ponech writes that those inten-
is the propositional content of the film (p. 188). If tions are discoverable in the plans the filmmaker
the (or an) audience fails to adopt such a stance, develops in making the work, plans that become
presumably, this would disqualify a text as a film manifest in the finished film.22
of presumptive assertion. It strikes me that in These DA accounts, then, share much in com-
such cases, the producer' s intention, together mon. They go beyond the formal elements of
with the textual cues and markers that signal such films to distinguish between fiction and nonfic-
intention, makes the work one that can be said to tion on the basis of the illocutionary act per-
make assertions, and not the actual presumptions formed through or with the work. Moreover, they
of any particular audience. An intention-response all implicitly appeal to the intentions of film-
model of a type of film need not rely on the makers. Roughly speaking, DA accounts hold
actual response of spectators. To do so would that documentaries are moving picture texts in or
imply a thorough-going subjectivism, such that, through which filmmakers assert that the states
depending on its audience, a film could be a doc- of affairs represented in the work hold in the
umentary for some and not for others.'s actual world. In other words, filmmakers take an
It makes more sense to leave the actual spec- assertive stance toward the world of the work.
tator response out of the definition since what is These definitions also take into account the
most important about such a relational defi- response of the spectator as a factor that enters
nition is that a filmmaker intends that the text be into the filmmaker's plans in making the film. At
received in a certain way, and that he or she the receiving end, the spectator of a documentary
design the text according to that expected recep- is meant to form or continue to hold an attitude of
tion.19 It is quite plausible, then, for Carroll to belief toward the state of affairs so represented.
say that documentaries are films for which the
relevant propositional content therein is meant
to be taken as asserted, but the qualifier 'pre- III. THE FAILURE OF DIR AND DA DEFINITIONS

sumptive' in 'presumptive assertion' ought to

be dropped. Why not call it, simply, "the film of The question I ask here is whether the DIR and
assertion"? DA definitions, when plausibly stated, capture

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Plantinga What a Documentary Is, After All 109

what we mean when we use the word 'docu- treatment of its subject.24 Often thought to
mentary.' To begin to answer this question, we allow greater freedom of interpretation on the
need to explore the usage of the word 'docu- part of the viewer than the expository mode.
mentary' a bit further. What kind of moving- Associated with American direct cinema and,
image nonfictions do we have in mind when we to a lesser extent, with cinema veritd. Exam-
use the term 'documentary'? ples include any of the documentaries of Fre-
Films that are considered to be documen- derick Wiseman such as High School (1968),
taries come in many varieties. If we survey the Hospital (1980), and Racetrack (1985) and
territory, we see journalistic documentaries the Maysles brothers' Salesman (1969) and
such as those found on the public television Grey Gardens (1975). More recent examples
series Frontline, associational and poetic docu- are The War Room (1993) and Startup.com
mentaries such as Anima Mundi (1992) and (2001).
Koyanisqaatsi (1983), propaganda films such as
Why We Fight (1942-1945) and Triumph of the Equipped with this new terminology, let us
Will (1935), the films of the direct cinema or return once again to the DIR and DA accounts,
cinema verit6 movements, films that make with a view toward assessing whether either,
heavy use of reenactments such as the docu- taken as a traditional definition, seems to fit
mentaries of John Grierson, Robert Flaherty, both of these rather central modes of documen-
and Humphrey Jennings, and documentaries in tary. The DIR account, which I will consider
the making of which the filmmaker becomes a first, has little trouble with observational films.
kind of provocateur (Chronicle of a Summer The observational documentary, of course, is
[1960], Sherman's March [1985]). directly rooted in the ability of the moving
There exist many ways to carve out this image and sound recording to provide a kind of
diverse body of films, but perhaps the most indexical record, or trace, of the pro-filmic
influential has been Bill Nichols's description event.

of six documentary modes, which I mentioned It is the expository documentary, in many of

in the introduction to this essay: the poetic, its historical manifestations, that DIR accounts
expository, observational, participatory, reflex- describe poorly. This is obviously true in the
ive, and performative.23 For my purposes, it will case of historical documentaries about subjects
be sufficient to describe just two of the six that existed before the invention of photogra-
modes-the expository and the observational- phy. In these cases there can be no photographic
to show inadequacies in the DIR and DA trace of such subjects. Currie admits that his
accounts. version of DIR would preclude documentaries
about Napoleon, for example.
* Expository. Typically, a voice-over narrator DIR accounts would also have trouble with
provides an explanatory conceptual frame- the first sixty-five or so years of documentary
work, and images and sounds are used to history. The films produced under the aegis of
illustrate or provide (loose) evidence for what John Grierson, the man who did so much to fix
is stated by the voice-over narrator. Exposi- the meaning of the word 'documentary,' com-
tory documentaries tend to be heavily monly used recreations and stagings of events,
scripted and many make an overt argument as did other pioneers of the documentary form
for a position or for a particular interpretation such as Robert Flaherty and Humphrey Jen-
of history. Examples include the Why We nings. Shots of reenacted events clearly do not
Fight series, The Sky Above, the Earth Below represent what they are photographs of and are
(1962), and most journalistic television docu- thus problematic for DIR accounts.25 The kind
mentaries, such as CBS Reports' Harvest of of cinematography favored by DIR accounts, in
Shame (1962) and most of the current films of fact, did not become strongly associated with
the PBS Frontline series. the documentary until after the direct cinema
* Observational. Eschews voice-over narration and cinema verit6 movements of the 1960s.
and many other traditional techniques in This issue aside, DIR accounts, it seems to
favor of the observation of the pro-filmic me, do not capture the most important features
event and a more open-ended and ambiguous of expository documentaries. Currie writes that

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 110 The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

under his definition, documentary films are has no voice-over narration and exclusively
those in which "meaning passes from image to uses images and sounds recorded on location to
narrative, while in nondocumentary meaning present a portrait of New York's Metropolitan
goes the other way."26 Although Currie admits Hospital. Wiseman clearly implies much about
that this passage is put "loosely" (and thus I the hospital through the selection of footage and
may be misinterpreting it), I take Currie to be through editing, so one might find in the film
saying that whatever meaning documentaries propositional content that is implied or asserted.
might have originates in or stems from the photo- Yet the film's epistemic voice, as we might call
graphic traces that make up the documentaries, it, is open or hesitant.27 For much of its running
and not from some prior argument, previously time, the film seems just as content to observe
researched historical account, political anal- and to display, as to make assertions about
ysis, scientific explanation, and so forth. This propositional content.
claim, however, is implausible for a wide range One might claim that in observing or display-
of documentaries. Well-known documentaries ing such images, Hospital should be taken to
such as The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter assert that the state of affairs represented, stated
(1980), The Thin Blue Line (1987), and Roger in propositional terms, occurred in that actual
and Me (1989) are carefully crafted films orga- hospital. Trevor Ponech takes this position. In
nized around an argument, broadly conceived. relation to the anthropological film Trance and
It is quite obvious that the images support a Dance in Bali (1952), with a nonsynchronous
scripted argument or narrative, the meaning of music track as its only sound, Ponech first
which does not necessarily arise from the describes, in linguistic terms, the features of the
images used. ritual dance performances shown, then con-
Neither would it be right to find the essence cludes that the filmmakers' objective "is to
of these films, qua documentary, to lie in the assert that this ritual performance has the afore-
particular use of motion picture photographs as mentioned features." In other words, such a
traces. In these cases, it seems to me, the use of series of images, without voice-over narration,
cinematography is harnessed to the broader should be taken to assert a series of propositions
argumentative strategy of the filmmakers, about its subject, stated in linguistic terms.
which, I believe, DA accounts can account for. This claim is problematic, however. If photo-
DIR accounts, then, fail as traditional defi- graphs are traces, as Currie claims, then we
nitions in part because they are too narrow. should say that they have a communicative life
They would not only rule out many paradigm that in part escapes the intentions of the film-
examples of the documentary, but they do not maker(s). The filmmakers cannot have in mind,
fit one central mode of the documentary-the when making the film, all the propositions that
expository documentary. might plausibly be gleaned from the film's
DA accounts, in my view, are far more plau- images. Wiseman and the makers of Trance and
sible, but nonetheless must contend with con- Dance in Bali need not be committed to any
ceptual problems. With their emphasis on truth particular propositional account of what occurs
claims, the assertion of propositional content, in each moving image. Why is this? It is
and/or cueing spectators to take a stance of because the moving photograph and the sound
belief toward what is presented, DA accounts recording are to some degree belief-independent.
are well able to distinguish prose fiction from Their communicative richness extends beyond
prose nonfiction, since the assertion of propo- the intentions of the filmmakers and leaves
sitions and/or the assertive stance are well something for interpretation and discovery by
suited to linguistic discourse. DA accounts do audiences.
less well in characterizing the documentary, In addition, it may be that certain images and
however, in part due to the peculiar nature of sounds, or sequences thereof, are meant to
the photographic and sonic, as opposed to lin- approximate some element of the phenomeno-
guistic, discourse. logical experience of the event, such as how it
Consider an observational film such as looked or sounded from a particular vantage
Frederick Wiseman's Hospital (1970). In the point, or how it was full of energetic good cheer
tradition of American direct cinema, Hospital or a strong sense of foreboding. Thus the film

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 Plantinga What a Documentary Is, After All 111

may be taken to assert that the relevant scenes event sounded like or felt like from a particular
give a sense of how the filmmakers were perspective. The spectator may infer proposi-
"appeared to" aurally and/or visually. This is tional knowledge from these ways of seeing,
still a case of assertion in some sense because hearing, and feeling, but the filmmaker is not
the filmmakers might be taken to be asserting necessarily asserting, or intending the spectator
that a scene shows what the pro-filmic event to take as asserted, all the propositional content
looked like, or approximates how the filmmak- that can reasonably be inferred from the shot or
ers "were appeared to." The apprehension con- series of shots.
ditions of such scenes, however, cannot be In a documentary, what the filmmaker
linguistic in nature. That is, we can grasp those asserts, in the first instance, is that the images,
phenomenological qualities the scene embodies sounds, and other materials presented are what I
only by viewing the scene. will call veridical representations of whatever
We might get at this by drawing a distinction the documentary takes as its subject. As I
between saying and showing. Saying, in the describe below, documentary representation
context of a documentary, characteristically commits the filmmaker to assert the reliability
involves the assertion of specific propositional or functionality of whatever materials are used
content. It is something like making an asser- to show the spectator how something is, was, or
tion or assertions about the representee, saying might be in the actual world.
that it is thus and so. Showing, on the other DA accounts, then, miss or minimize the
hand, is something like standing in for the rep- extent to which the moving photographic image
resentee and may not involve the assertion of and recorded sound, as rich, sensual, indexical
specific propositional content. For example, records of the subject, cannot be reduced to the
showing a person a series of snapshots taken of intentional assertion of propositional content.
an event need not commit the shower to an Photographic and sonic communication in the
assertion of the propositional content of the documentary require that we consider the
photographs. The shower is simply presenting notion of asserted veridical representation
the photographs as veridical representations of (AVR) as embedded in our concept of the typi-
the event and allowing the viewer to learn and cal or usual documentary.
perhaps form beliefs about the event on the
basis of those photographs.
Most documentaries, it seems to me, are IV. ASSERTED VERIDICAL REPRESENTATION

representations that combine saying and show-

ing and do so in different proportions depending My argument is that central to our idea of the
on the type of documentary. The observational typical or usual documentary, and prior to any
documentary often leaves more to the viewer's notion of the photograph as a trace, is the
share than does the expository documentary and implicit directorial assertion of veridical repre-
is further toward the side of showing. The sentation, representation that is, in the case of
viewer of Hospital might come to have certain implicitly or directly asserted propositions,
beliefs about the subject based on the documen- truthful; and in the case of images, sounds, or
tary cinematography. Yet what is being asserted combinations thereof, a reliable guide to rele-
about the propositional content of the photo- vant elements of the pro-filmic scene or scenes.
graphs is underdetermined; in some cases, the When a filmmaker presents a film as a docu-
propositional content is unspecified and in mentary, he or she not only intends that the
many cases it is unclear. The propositional con- audience come to form certain beliefs, but also
tent of many documentaries, or of many parts of implicitly asserts something about the use of the
many documentaries, escapes the control and medium itself-that the use of motion pictures
intentions of the filmmaker. and recorded sounds offer an audiovisual array
In some cases, moreover, what is commu- that communicates some phenomenological
nicated is the look, the sound, the feel of an aspect of the subject, from which the spectator
event, as much as propositional information. It might reasonably be expected to form a sense of
is as though the director is content to show us that phenomenological aspect and/or form true
the "look" of the pro-filmic event, or what the beliefs about that subject.

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 112 The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

I have introduced the notion of AVR in an The development of lightweight cameras and
attempt to account for what people often mean sound-recording equipment in the late 1950s
when they use the word 'documentary.' In contributed to the rise of a new ethos of authen-
claiming that AVR is expected of documentary ticity, fully developed in the direct cinema and
films, I am not claiming that audiences, critics, cinema verit6 movements of the 1960s. The
and filmmakers share a well-defined conception project of the documentary film, some cinema
of what constitutes AVR. Far from it. Audi- verit6 filmmakers claimed, was to record and
ences need not have a philosophically precise represent reality, and not to make interpreta-
idea of what constitutes AVR for the concept, tions. The documentary filmmaker became,
vague though it is, to play a central role in then, not an artist or teacher so much as a facili-
thinking about the typical or usual documen- tator, one who self-effacingly records the pro-
tary. People do expect of the documentary that filmic event in order to re-present it, as is, to the
it is intended to offer a reliable record, account spectator. The sense that the filmmaker's duty
of, argument about, or analysis of some element was to record and not interpret led to conven-
of the actual world, that is, they expect an tional practices of documentary film produc-
assertedly veridical representation. tion. Voice-over narration was rejected as
What counts as AVR, however, differs in manipulative and patronizing; the spectator
various contexts. For example, what is accepted should be allowed to interpret the film himself
as a veridical representation depends in part on or herself. The filmmaker refrained, as much as
the mode of documentary in question. In expo- possible, from manipulating or influencing the
sitional documentaries, the assertion of propo- pro-filmic event, and attempted to become a
sitions or truth claims becomes central. The proverbial fly on the wall. Cinema verit6 film-
implicit rules for veridical representation makers used images and recorded sounds pre-
through images are relaxed somewhat, allowing dominantly as traces, in Currie's sense. Some
for animated maps, occasional reenactments, rejected the use of program music because it did
the relatively loose use of archival footage, and not originate from the pro-filmic scene.29
so forth, as long as such images and sounds are With the influence of cinema verit6, conven-
not fundamentally misleading. tions of asserted veridical representation for
Typical observational documentaries have documentaries became much stricter. Staging
stricter conventions for the use of motion pic- and reenactment were looked on with suspicion,
ture photography. Within the context of the and cinematography was largely limited to the
observational film, AVR requires that the film- trace functions Currie describes. At the height
maker refrain from overt manipulation and stag- of the cinema verit6 movement, the conventions
ing in the making of recorded images and of asserted veridical representation were far dif-
sounds. In any documentary, however, when ferent than they are for most filmmakers today.
photographic images and sound recordings are Contemporary documentarians and critics,
used as documents, that is, as evidence that the for the most part, reject the more extreme
pro-filmic event occurred in a certain way, the claims of the cinema verit6 movement, and
requirements of veridical photographic repre- freely use scripts, voice-over narration, ani-
sentation are quite strict. mated simulations, program music, and so forth.
Conventions of veridical representation also Errol Morris, among whose films is The Thin
change with history. A quick look at the history Blue Line (1988), which makes use of dramatic
of documentary shows that the staging and recreations, argues that documentary filmmak-
reenactment of scenes was routine and com- ing must be as personal and creative as fiction
monly accepted as legitimate documentary filmmaking, and that cinema verit6 set docu-
practice for the first sixty-five years of docu- mentary filmmaking back twenty years.30
mentary history. The films of Robert Flaherty, The point of this brief historical interlude is
John Grierson, and Humphrey Jennings, argu- this: my argument is that inherent in our use of
ably the most important documentary filmmak- 'documentary' is that the typical or usual docu-
ers of the first half of the twentieth century, mentary is an asserted veridical representation. I
commonly make use of staged and reenacted do not argue that filmmakers, critics, and audi-
scenes.
ences will agree about what qualifies as asserted

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Plantinga What a Documentary Is, After All 113

veridical representation. In fact, disagreements documentary, but always in relation to various

about such issues are common. This is in part requirements for their production and use.
due to historical variability and variability There are requirements, for example, about the
across movements, modes, and contexts. treatment of the film's subjects, the filmmakers'
My notion of AVR encompasses the insights influence on the pro-filmic event, the use of
of DA and DIR definitions by affirming, but cinematography, and how such traces should be
not claiming too much for, the assertion of edited.
propositions or the use of trace images in the Photographic traces are often important in the
documentary. Thus I do not deny that in many expositional film as well, though expositional
documentaries, propositional assertion plays a documentaries loosen requirements for cinemat-
central role. Asserted veridical representation ography and allow for occasional recreations,
requires that the relevant portions of the propo- reenactments, charts, maps, animations, and
sitional content of a documentary be asserted as computer simulations. Conventional protocols
holding or occurring in the actual world.31 Yet of AVR, then, might also allow for computer
even in the expositional film (the mode most simulations, animated maps and charts, various
associated with the explicit assertion of propos- sorts of directorial manipulation and staging,
itional information), images and sounds are used and a host of other creative manipulations. It could
not solely to assert, but to provide a sense of the well be the case that a computer simulation
look, sound, or overall perceptual experience of might provide more accurate and detailed
a scene or scenes. In the observational film, on information about a subject than a trace photo-
the other hand, AVR more fundamentally takes graph, as in the case of James Cameron's use of
the latter form, as the filmmaker is taken to computer simulations in Ghosts of the Abyss
assert that a shot embodies the look or sound or (2003), of the interior of the Titanic before the
"experience" of a scene from some perspective, ship sank.
and thus can serve as a reliable record or model Note that while this conception of the
of its subject. Secondarily, the film might also documentary finds the assertion of veridical
be taken to implicitly or explicitly make asser- representation to be central to the documentary
tions about its subject, beyond the implicit film, it in no way precludes the possibility that
claim that the scene captures some aspect of the documentaries can be used to lie, or that they
look or sound of the pro-filmic event. may sometimes be highly misleading, inaccu-
As discussed above, Currie characterizes the rate, or mired in any of a number of epistem-
documentary as a film that uses photographs to ically troubled waters. The mere assertion of
represent what the photographs are traces of. having followed conventional protocols for
But the notion of trace neglects an essential ele- veridical representation, of course, guarantees
ment of the use of images and sounds for the nothing. Moreover, the director may intend that
purposes of AVR. As every cinematographer audiences presume that relevant protocols were
knows, a shot that represents what it is of may followed, but not in fact have followed them.
nonetheless imply much that is misleading or For example, it is commonplace in nature doc-
just plain false about its subject. The cinema- umentaries that filmmakers eliminate any trace
tographer can use angle, focal length, shot com- of human existence in films about wildlife and
position, lighting, filters, camera movement, wild areas.32 The cinematographer may reframe
film stock, background, and context to represent to leave the telephone pole out of the shot and the
the subject in diverse ways, all while using said sound recorder might wait for the right moment
moving photograph to represent what it is of. to record the sound of young birds in a nest with-
Moreover, the director might ask a subject to out the sound of an airplane flying overhead.
strike an uncharacteristic pose or perform some Although we may not want to call such practices
highly unusual action. deceptive in themselves, the convention overall
If we expect that a documentary provide us may lead to a romantic and inaccurate conception
with reliable visual information, we expect of nature as something that is wholly free from
more assurance from a director than the mere human influence and presence.
fact that she or he used only traces. Traces are a It is certainly possible that some conventions
central element of AVR in the observational of documentary representation are mired in naive

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 114 The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

mythmaking, romanticization, self-conscious records of, and/or arguments about the actual
rhetorical and persuasive strategies, and various world. Fictions may also muse about the actual
forms of self-delusion. The question of which world, but do so indirectly through fictional
documentary practices and techniques are in characters and events.
fact reliable extends far beyond the boundaries In some cases, differences between documen-
of this paper. My claim is not that documen- tary practices of asserted veridical representa-
taries are in fact veridical (although I believe tion and fictional practices might be subtle and
that in some cases they are), but that the complex. In almost no case, for example, would
documentary filmmaker typically intends the we accept actors playing purely fictional char-
spectator to take what is presented as asserted acters as asserted veridical representation, yet
veridical representation. we might accept actors playing historical fig-
Clearly, much of the most interesting ures if we were convinced that quality research
discourse about the documentary has to do with had figured into the historical accuracy of what
the nature of veridical representation since, in the actors wore, said, and did. Some fiction
my view, accepted notions of asserted veridical films intend the audience to take a stance of
representation are clearly subject to change. belief toward portions of their propositional
When, for his 1991 documentary about physicist content, but we rarely accept as asserted veridi-
Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time, cal representation the offering of fictional char-
Errol Morris constructs a set to look like the acters, imaginary worlds, and made-up stories.
office of the famous scientist, does that qualify Although the distinction between fiction
as asserted veridical representation? When films and documentaries is most often clear,
James Cameron uses animated computer simu- various hybrid films stand at the fuzzy bounda-
lations of the interior of the Titanic in his film ries of fiction and nonfiction, never settling
about exploring the wreck of that ship, Ghosts comfortably into either category. Although Lost
of the Abyss, can we expect audiences to accept in Translation (2003) is clearly fiction and The
this as asserted veridical representation? When, War Room (1992) clearly documentary, certain
in order to get spectacular footage of flying kinds of "historical fictions," such as Oliver
birds, the makers of Winged Migration (2003) Stone's JFK (1991) and the "nonfiction mov-
imprint young birds to follow an Ultralight in ies" we sometimes see on PBS, such as
flight, does this constitute asserted veridical Woodrow Wilson (1999) and The Saga of the
representation? I am inclined to answer yes in Israelites (2003), do not fit easily into either
each case, because in each the filmmaker category. Of course, fuzzy boundaries do not by
intends that the audience take the relevant film themselves call into question the legitimacy of
scenes as reliable representations of some ele- the categories.33
ment of the actual world from which true beliefs
can be formed about the film's subject.
Any characterization of the documentary had V. WHAT A DOCUMENTARY IS

better work to distinguish the fiction from the

nonfiction film, and the notion of asserted Now I am prepared to say what a documentary
veridical representation does so. If the practices is, after all.
of asserted veridical representation are conven- I propose that the typical or usual documen-
tional, historical, and contextual, then we tary film be conceived of as an asserted veridi-
should not expect asserted veridical representa- cal representation, that is, as an extended
tion to distinguish fiction from nonfiction film treatment of a subject in one of the moving-
in the same way in all contexts. Behind all the image media, most often in narrative, rhetorical,
historical change and contextual variations, categorical, or associative form, in which the
however, lies a more or less constant functional film's makers openly signal their intention that
difference between fiction and documentary the audience (1) take an attitude of belief
that the notion of AVR embodies. Typical docu- toward relevant propositional content (the "say-
mentaries are first and foremost meant to be ing" part), (2) take the images, sounds, and
taken, in both their particularity and their broad combinations thereof as reliable sources for the
thematic outlines, as reliable accounts of, formation of beliefs about the film's subject

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 Plantinga What a Documentary Is, After All 115

and, in some cases, (3) take relevant shots, historically unchanging definition of AVR risks
recorded sounds, and/or scenes as phenomeno- all the sorts of problems I found with the DA
logical approximations of the look, sound, and/ and DIR accounts. Thus, any attempt to further
or some other sense or feel of the pro-filmic circumscribe the concept of asserted veridical
event (the "showing" part). representation, or the general concept of docu-
I will not assert necessary and sufficient con- mentary, must take into account historical and
ditions, and thus I refrain from offering a tradi- contextual, and not merely conceptual, factors.
tional definition. If one insists on the usefulness Second, I do give AVR content. In making a
of traditional definitions, it may be more fruitful distinction between saying and showing, I sug-
to attempt to define the various modes of the gest that a documentary combines both, but that
documentary, the modes being sufficiently cir- in either case, the documentary is intended as a
cumscribed to admit of a better chance at such reliable account of, argument about, record of,
definition. In the case of the documentary film or approximation of some aspect of the actual
broadly considered, it is enough to describe world. The practices of AVR that distinguish
central features of the usual or prototypical docu- the documentary are oriented toward one or
mentary to enable a fuller understanding of this more of these functions.
kind of film text.34 The second objection to my characterization
The characterization I propose fits prototypi- might be that my account of AVR is merely an
cal documentaries rather than those at the improved version of the DA account. It is true
periphery, and describes some documentary that in AVR, both saying and showing involve
modes better than others. For example, this assertion: saying does for obvious reasons, and
characterization will not fit well the poetic showing does because when a documentary
mode of documentary, which uses trace images filmmaker openly signals an intention that the
to an aesthetic more than informational intent. audience take a shot, for example, to approxi-
But one could argue that the poetic mode is mate what the pro-filmic event looked like from
itself far less central to the documentary genre a certain perspective, the filmmaker is implicitly
than the expository or observational modes.35 In asserting a relation of resemblance (appearance)
any case, I would argue that a traditional defini- between the shot and the scene. The AVR
tion of the documentary cannot be given, since account, then, denies only that the assertion of
the variety of films we call "documentary" are propositional content be taken as the character-
too variegated to allow for the attribution of istic or defining feature of the documentary; it
necessary and sufficient conditions. does not deny that such assertion plays an
Two possible objections to my account of important role in most typical, or usual, docu-
AVR are (1) that it is either too vague to be mentaries. For as I have argued, exaggerating
assessed by comparison with DA and DIR the role of specific assertions in the documen-
accounts, or (2) that it is equivalent to a plausi- tary risks overlooking showing in the documen-
ble version of DA. The first objection, that of tary, that is, the presentation of images and
vagueness, might be that to describe the docu- sounds to allow for the apprehension of phe-
mentary as asserted veridical representation, nomenological qualities on the part of the spec-
that is, as a set of ever-changing practices tator, and to allow more to the "viewer's share."
dependent on documentary mode, history, con- At the end of the day, it matters little whether
text, and so forth, is equivalent to no more than AVR is a new and improved version of DA, or
claiming that a documentary film is one that a whether it is a sufficiently novel characteriza-
filmmaker produces using conventional docu- tion of the documentary to warrant a new title.
mentary techniques. I have two responses to Of most interest to us is whether it is useful in
this objection. First, my purpose in this paper is characterizing the documentary and improves
to claim that the notion of asserted veridical on prior accounts of what a documentary is.
representation captures something central about The interesting task now would be to explore
our sense of the functions and purposes of the the conventions of asserted veridical representa-
documentary. Insofar as the concept is applied tion in various documentary modes or exem-
ambiguously, and differs according to historical plars, in the docudrama or what some call
context, mode, and so forth, then any precise, "nonfiction movies," and in various documentary

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 116 The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

techniques and practices.36 Veridical represen- Criticism 58 (2000): 306-308; Jinhee Choi, "A Reply to
Gregory Currie on Documentaries," The Journal ofAesthet-
tation is widely assumed, but poorly under-
ics and Art Criticism 59 (2001): 317-319; Gregory Currie,
stood, and much work remains to be done. Yet
"Response to Jinhee Choi," The Journal of Aesthetics and
the notion of asserted veridical representation Art Criticism 59 (2001): 319-320.
is clearly needed to account for what people 9. Here Currie makes reference to Kendall Walton's

typically mean when they use the word essay, "Transparent Pictures: On the Nature of Photo-
graphic Realism," Critical Inquiry 11 (1984): 246-277.
'documentary.'37
Currie notes that Walton acknowledges a debt to the work
of Paul Grice.
10. Narrative is one sort of organizational structure for
CARL PLANTINGA documentaries. Documentaries can also be organized cate-
Department of Communication Arts and Sciences gorically or topically, as arguments or cases, and in loose
associative form.
Calvin College
11. Currie does not say what he means by 'asserted narra-
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546 tive,' but this does suggest that he recognizes the need for some
type of DA account, at least as a supplement to his theory.
12. In his response to Currie, No6l Carroll suggests that
INTERNET: cplantin@calvin.edu
Currie's theory would seemingly make the surveillance
video a paradigmatic case of documentary (p. 304).
1. Grierson's phrase is quoted in Forsyth Hardy's intro- 13. Carl Plantinga, "Defining Documentary: Fiction,
duction to Grierson's collected writings, Grierson on Docu- Non-Fiction, and Projected Worlds," Persistence of Vision
mentary, ed. Forsyth Hardy (University of California Press, 5 (1987): 44-54; see also Plantinga, Rhetoric and Represen-
1966), p. 13. Grierson's most important writing on defining tation in Nonfiction Film, and Nicholas Wolterstorff, Works
the documentary is found in the chapter, "First Principles of and Worlds of Art (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980).
Documentary," pp. 145-156. 14. Plantinga, "Defining Documentary," pp. 52-53.
2. Bill Nichols, Introduction to Documentary (Indiana 15. One might also mention here the work of Roger
University Press, 2001), pp. 99-138. Odin, whose "semio-pragmatic" approach to the documen-
3. The pro-filmic event or scene for a moving photo- tary is similar in some regards to action-oriented definitions.
graph is whatever was in front of the camera while the cam- Odin argues that while the fiction film posits a fictional
era recorded the scene. enunciator (or narrator), the documentary posits an actual
4. C. S. Peirce, "The Icon, Index, and Symbol" in Col- narrator. I find this approach to be highly problematic,
lected Papers, 8 vols., ed. Charles Hartshorne and Paul however. First, not all fiction films have an enunciator or
Weiss (Harvard University Press, 1931-1958), vol. II. narrator; they have a narration, but not necessarily an
5. See my Rhetoric and Representation in Nonfiction anthropomorphized fictional narrator. When we view a
Film (Cambridge University Press, 1997), p. 59. The impli- film, we assume that the story is being presented, or nar-
cations of the indexical bond between photograph and refer- rated, but not necessarily, I believe, by a narrator or enunci-
ent can easily be overestimated and misunderstood. See ator. Second, even if all films did have a narrator or
pp. 40-82 for an extended discussion of the nature and uses enunciator, the distinction between fiction and nonfiction
of moving-image photography in nonfiction films. It is also does not seem to reside in whether the enunciator is actual
worth noting that the moving photograph can function or fictional, but more centrally in the stance taken by the
simultaneously as an index, icon, and symbol. actual filmmaker toward the state of affairs projected. See
6. For an account of various attempts to define the docu- Roger Odin, "A Semio-Pragmatic Approach to the Docu-
mentary outside of philosophy, see Plantinga, Rhetoric and mentary Film" in The Film Spectator: From Sign to Mind,
Representation in Nonfiction Film, pp. 7-39. ed. Warren Buckland (Amsterdam University Press, 1995).
7. For a critique of postmodernist and poststructuralist On the idea of narration, see David Bordwell, Narration in
theories of the documentary, see Noel Carroll, "Nonfiction the Fiction Film (University of Wisconsin Press, 1985).
Film and Postmodernist Skepticism" in Post-Theory: 16. Carroll, "Fiction, Non-Fiction, and the Film of Pre-
Reconstructing Film Studies, ed. David Bordwell and Noel sumptive Assertion: A Conceptual Analysis" in Film The-
Carroll (University of Wisconsin Press, 1996), pp. 283-306; ory and Philosophy, ed. Richard Allen and Murray Smith
see also my essay, "Moving Pictures and the Rhetoric (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997), pp. 173-202. The essay
of Nonfiction Film: Two Approaches" in Post-Theory, also appears in Carroll's Engaging the Moving Image (Yale
pp. 307-324. University Press, 2003).
8. Gregory Currie, "Visible Traces: Documentary and 17. Carroll, "Fiction, Non-Fiction, and the Film of Pre-
the Contents of Photographs," The Journal of Aesthetics sumptive Assertion," p. 186.
and Art Criticism 57 (1999): 285-297. Further references to 18. Another reason Carroll gives for calling this sort of
the Currie essay will be made parenthetically within the film a film of "presumptive assertion" is that documentaries
text. The two published responses to this essay and Currie's may lie. Carroll writes that documentaries "are presumed to
replies are very interesting. See Noel Carroll, "Photographic involve assertion even in cases where the film-maker is
Traces and Documentary Films: Comments for Greg Cur- intentionally dissimulating at the same time that he is sig-
rie," The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 58 (2000): naling an assertoric intention" (p. 187). In this case, however,
303-306; Gregory Currie, "Preserving the Traces: An one wants to say that 'presumptive' is misleading because it
Answer to Noel Carroll," The Journal of Aesthetics and Art implies that an assertion must be true to qualify as an

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 Plantinga What a Documentary Is, After All 117

assertion. But if a statement must be true to qualify as an 27. See Plantinga, Rhetoric and Representation in
assertion, this would rule out thinking of a lie as the asser- Nonfiction Film, pp. 101-119, for a discussion of "voice
tion of a falsehood. I would argue that when we see a film as and authority" in nonfiction films.
a documentary, we may exercise a certain skepticism about 28. Ponech, "What is Non-Fiction Cinema?" p. 205.
the truth of its assertions, but not typically about whether its 29. For a discussion of the philosophical implications of
assertions are in fact assertions. cinema verit6, see Carroll's "From Real to Reel," Philo-
Carroll seems to recognize this difficulty, and on a few sophic Exchange 14 (1983): 5-46.
occasions writes of the "film of presumptive fact" or 30. Errol Morris and Peter Bates, "Truth Not Guaran-
"films of putative fact" as synonymous with the "film of teed: An Interview with Errol Morris," Cindaste 14
presumptive assertion" (for example, p. 187). But this (1989): 17.
confuses two very different concepts-fact and assertion. 31. I say "relevant portions" because I do not want to
If Carroll were to consistently call the documentary "the imply that the only illocutionary act performed in or
film of presumptive fact," then the 'presumptive' would through a documentary is assertion. There is clearly much
neither be unnecessary nor misleading. This definition, else going on. My claim here would be that assertion is a
however, would have the unfortunate consequence of central element of what is characteristic of the documentary,
throwing its weight on the response of the spectator (who not that assertion is all there is to documentary communica-
presumes that the propositional content of the film is tion.
factual) rather than on the intentions and actions of 32. This example was suggested by Ronald Tobias.
the filmmakers as embodied in the text through cues or 33. For more on the nature of definitions and categories
markers of various sorts. in relation to the nonfiction film, see Plantinga, Rhetoric
19. For a critique of subjectivist definitions of the and Representation in Nonfiction Film, pp. 7-25.
documentary, see my essay, "The Limits of Appropriation: 34. Many philosophers have given up attempts to find
Subjectivist Accounts of the Fiction/Nonfiction Film necessary and sufficient conditions in favor of character-
Distinction" in Moving Images, Culture and the Mind, ed. izing paradigm cases of the concept in question, as I do
Ib Bondebjerg (University of Luton Press, 2000). here. See, for example, Robert C. Roberts, Emotions: An
20. See Trevor Ponech, "What is Non-Fiction Cinema?" Essay in Aid of Moral Psychology (Cambridge University
in Film Theory and Philosophy, pp. 203-220; see also Press, 2003). Ronald de Sousa, for another example, sug-
Trevor Ponech, What is Non-Fiction Cinema?: On the Very gests that a greater understanding of the emotions will occur
Idea of Motion Picture Communication (Boulder: Westview once we avoid the partiality of, but nonetheless learn from,
Press, 1999). each of the various theories of emotion. See Ronald de
21. Ponech, "What is Non-Fiction Cinema?" pp. 204-205. Sousa, The Rationality of Emotion (MIT Press, 1987), p. 22.
22. Ponech, What is Non-Fiction Cinema?: On the Very 35. See Plantinga, Rhetoric and Representation in Non-
Idea of Motion Picture Communication, pp. 8-39. fiction Film, pp. 171-190, for a discussion of what I call the
23. Nichols introduced this taxonomy in a different form "poetic voice" in documentary.
in his Representing Reality: Issues and Concepts in Docu- 36. This is the term used by filmmaker Carl Byker for his
mentary (Indiana University Press, 1991). His significantly historical films, for example, Woodrow Wilson and The
revised taxonomy can be found in Introduction to Docu- Saga of the Israelites, which make heavy use of historical
mentary (Indiana University Press, 2001), pp. 99-138. reenactments.

24. Clearly, these films are not strictly or merely obser- 37. I owe thanks to several people. Members of the
vational, but films that to some degree abdicate the forma- Calvin College Department of Philosophy-Terrence
tive work of the filmmaker in favor of the capacity of the Cuneo, Ruth Groenhout, Lee Hardy, and James K. A. Smith-
documentary to record and observe. read and discussed this paper with me. I also benefited from
25. Shots of reenacted events are photographs of a the response of audiences at Montana State University and
reenacted, staged scene, but are meant to represent the the 2003 American Society for Aesthetics Conference.
actual historical event. Thus they are not photographs of Jinhee Choi, Arild Fetveit, Dan Flory, Alvin Plantinga, two
what they represent. anonymous reviewers, and the editor of The Journal of
26. Currie, "Visible Traces: Documentary and the Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Susan Feagin, all provided
Contents of Photographs," p. 296. useful comments on earlier drafts of this essay.

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