A Journey of Whys to My Passion for Documentary

admin — Tue, 13 Apr 2021 21:58:26 +0000

If you’ve been following my monthly blog, then you’ll know that four weeks ago I arrived in Nova Scotia to film a documentary about the Harmony Bazaar Festival of Women and Song. You’ll also know that the decision to make this trip also has me asking lots of questions – not about the decision to take this trip. On the contrary, I am incredibly thankful to be out here in beautiful Lockeport, meeting such lovely, friendly, and welcoming people, and getting the opportunity to tell what I feel is a really compelling story about community building and resiliency.

No, I’m not questioning the decision to come to Nova Scotia. But making the decision to jump into an adventure such as this one definitely has me plunging back into my bad habit of questioning why I’m even pursuing documentary in the first place.

One of my accountability partners gave me the idea of trying out the ‘11 whys’ exercise to try and drill down to the ‘true’ or ‘deepest’ reason for why I am pursuing documentary. This exercise is really simple. All I have to do is keep asking and answering why until I feel like I can’t ask why any more. So here goes!

1. Why do I want to create documentaries?

I am curious about, and find beauty and magic in, the varied experiences and thoughts that make a person who they are. I want to capture that beauty and magic and share it with others.

2. Why?

Because it can be hard to see beauty in others and in ourselves.

3. Why?

Because my society’s current focus seems to be on pain and suffering. We (myself included) more regularly express what’s going wrong in our lives and our societies than what’s going well.

4. Why?

I think perhaps because our society has been experiencing so much change in such a short period of time and humans don’t seem to like change.

5. Why?

Because change is often a threat to our survival.

6. Why?

Because our survival is dependent on being able to know and navigate the world around us, and change causes our knowledge and navigating abilities to become less reliable.

7. Why?

Because change shifts what is ‘accurate’ knowledge and what is ‘inaccurate’.

8. Why?

Because human knowledge is superficial and based entirely on the limited and biased information we can gather through our physical existence, even when that existence is extended or ‘enhanced’ through the tools that we create, like a stick for capturing ants in a log, or the languages we devise to share knowledge between physical bodies. As a result, our understandings of the world are currently (and may always) be limited by our biology.

9. Why?

Because we cannot step outside of ourselves. We are locked in the proverbial box of our physical selves, and no tool that we have can currently unlock that box in a way that allows us to truly experience and comprehend the life of another.

10. Why?

Because we have not discovered the power to swap physical existences yet (although, even if our consciousness could enter the physical self of another entity, I’m still suspect that we would be able to understand the other…because we would still be trapped in our unique perspective by our consciousness).

11. Why?

Because, in the way we currently understand our existence, our consciousness is basically what allows us to understand and have a sense of self. Thus, how would we perceive self in other if self were not there to perceive other? In which case, is it ever truly possible to understand other?

And yet, to bring us full circle to the initial question and answer, I am still fascinated by and compelled to investigate the lives and experiences of others. So I suppose, with documentary, I am attempting to understand others to the extent possible, and perhaps, because consciousness impacts my perception, it is actually ultimately about attempting to understand myself through comparison to others? Wow, is that what this is all about?

Certainly an interesting experiment. What do you think?

What is the purpose of documentary?

admin — Thu, 11 Mar 2021 11:51:24 +0000

What is the purpose of documentary? I’ve been asking myself this question a lot recently, especially as I prepare to start filming my new doc about a women’s music festival.

I chose this topic for my next documentary because the story felt exciting to me. I am really looking forward to following the Harmony House Band, getting to know each of the members, becoming familiar with Lockeport and the people who live there.

However, it’s brought up this question for me of a documentary’s purpose.

What IS the purpose of a documentary?

The dictionary defines documentary as “a movie or a television or radio program that provides a factual record or report.” Under this definition, I would understand a documentary’s purpose to be to deliver ‘a factual record or report’.

Putting aside the obvious (i.e. that the mere act of pointing a camera at something subverts this concept of ‘factual’, defined as ‘concerned with what is actually the case rather than interpretations of or reactions to it’, because a camera can only document a small portion of ‘reality’, and the choice of what portion is selected is always completely subjective), the fact that the definition of documentary emphasizes factual seems to suggest that subjectivity should not be a part of documentary creation. That documentary is merely meant to document. This is obviously impossible.

So then, what’s the alternate purpose of documentary? I suppose the purpose is to say something.

Many individuals would argue that documentary should be used to bring to light issues of injustice, or to attempt to motivate societal change. Media, after all, is a powerful influence on human behaviour (I would argue at least). Others might say documentary is merely another means of artistic expression.

I think the reason I’m asking this question of purpose is because I don’t exactly know what I have to say. I mean, at times, I have a specific message. For example, my message for the smallest steps my feature on anti-violence activism, is that anyone and everyone can and should take steps to end violence against women. But other documentaries I’ve created, like to love, again! (my short about my grandmother remarrying late in life), have had no real message. Literally in that instance, I was quickly creating a short documentary to try and win the TVO Short Doc competition and figured they might gravitate to a senior love story.

Coming back to the documentary that prompted this question of a documentary’s purpose, what do I have to say about this Nova Scotia women’s festival? I must admit, I don’t know what to say. I think it’s a story about connection, community building, and resilience, but I suppose I won’t know what message I intend to convey until I document it. Does this mean my documentary will lack purpose? And I guess, another question is, does not having an explicit purpose reduce the value of my documentary? Maybe THAT’s the question I’m really trying to get at – what gives documentary value?

I suppose today I’m all questions and no answers. What do YOU think?

Nicole Bedford |

A Journey of Whys to My Passion for Documentary

What is the purpose of documentary?