Deck 9: Alternatives to Narrative Fiction Film:Documentary and Avant-garde Films 

Question 1

________ filmmakers such as Luis Bunuel and René Clair explored the irrational,unconscious mind "beneath the surface of reality."

A) Abstract
B) Compilation
C) Structuralist
D) Surrealist

Answer 1

D

Question 2

In making Nanook of the North,Robert Flaherty ________.

A) insisted on calling the main subject of the film by his real name, "Nanook," even after his producers urged him to translate the name for impatient audiences
B) staged events
C) made his preference for industrial culture clear
D) introduced the gramophone (or, record player) into Inuit culture

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Documentaries that rely exclusively on interviews are called ________ documentaries.

A) conversational
B) commentary
C) voice of authority
D) talking head

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Which of the following is a visual technique associated with direct cinema?

A) interviews with experts
B) intentionally bringing the subject of the frame in and out of focus
C) The filmmaker appears onscreen and forcefully approaches those he wants to interview.
D) none of the above

Question 5

Most films shot before 1907 were short documentaries called ________.

A) actualités
B) realities
C) newsreels
D) narratives

Question 6

Artist Marcel Duchamp,who transformed "found objects" into works of art,influenced the aesthetic principles behind the ________ film.

A) compilation
B) structuralist
C) surrealist
D) abstract

Question 7

Fiction films that pose as documentaries by using its familiar conventions are ________.

A) outfoxumentaries
B) faux-mentaries
C) mockumentaries
D) self-reflexive documentaries

Question 8

Maya Deren's film Meshes of the Afternoon can be interpreted as a meditation on ________.

A) the death of a child
B) the disintegration of a marriage
C) the beauty of nature
D) all of these

Question 9

Un Chien Andalou mocks narrative form by ________.

A) parodying the conventions of documentary form
B) inserting intertitles with useless information
C) being an avant-garde film but with characters who have clear goals or conflicts
D) all of these

Question 10

________ documentaries rely on cause-and-effect logic and present subjects who seem like characters.

A) Talking heads
B) Narrative
C) Compilation
D) Visionary

Question 11

A technique that regularly appears in avant-garde films is ________.

A) slow, fast and reverse motion
B) superimposition
C) non-synchronized sound
D) all of these

Question 12

Abstract films ________.

A) focus on the dream state
B) rely on characters that represent archetypes and symbols
C) abandon human figures all together
D) all of these

Question 13

Documentaries that attempt to present events without any evidence of the director's perspective or judgments are called ________.

A) observational documentaries
B) direct cinema
C) cinema verite
D) all of these

Question 14

Grizzly Man could best be categorized as a ________ documentary because it calls attention to the process of filmmaking in order to expose the ways the medium constructs reality.

A) direct cinema
B) talking head
C) self-reflexive
D) propaganda

Question 15

Films like Michael Snow's Wavelength,which is primarily interested in the material properties of the medium,are called ________ films.

A) compilation
B) structuralist
C) surrealist
D) abstract

Question 16

The three modes of filmmaking are ________.

A) commercial fiction, documentary and avant-garde
B) comedy, drama and documentary
C) commercial fiction, avant-garde and experimental
D) commercial fiction, commercial nonfiction and avant-garde

Question 17

________ is a principle concern that dominates among avant-garde filmmakers.

A) Desire to explore the artistic and technological capabilities of the medium
B) Profitability in the lucrative art house market
C) Desire to tell a story in an aesthetically pleasing way
D) all of these

Question 18

John Grierson described the documentary mode of filmmaking as ________.

A) "an unflinching glimpse at reality"
B) "the creative treatment of actuality"
C) "the truth behind the apparent"
D) "the objective view on the world"

Question 19

Documentaries that promote a single position without allowance for competing perspectives are called ________.

A) voice of authority
B) propaganda
C) talking heads
D) direct cinema

Question 20

All documentaries present ________.

A) an argument
B) an unbiased truth
C) people who serve as "characters" to the audience
D) a clearly delineated narrative arc

Question 21

Man With a Movie Camera uses editing to equate the fluttering motion of blinking eyes with the aperture of a camera.

Question 22

Documentary filmmakers are just as motivated by profitability as their commercial fiction film counterparts.

Question 23

Michael Moore (Fahrenheit 9/11)would be an example of a director-participant.

Question 24

A documentary such as Robert Flaherty's Nanook of the North,whose purpose is to present a way of life of a culture or subculture,is called a(n)________ film.

Question 25

The _____________ film reuses existing film footage in an entirely new context to generate innovative ideas.

Question 26

________ combines documentary and experimental approaches to film to celebrate the vibrancy of urban life. Dziga Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera is a famous example.

Question 27

Ethnographic documentaries,like Robert Flaherty's Nanook of the North,were ground-breaking for their unsentimentalized portrayal ethnic cultures and subcultures.

Question 28

Phenomenologist film critics like Vivian Sobchack has studied how some moments in fiction films might evoke audience responses similar to what people experience when they watch documentaries.

Question 29

Editing in Meshes of the Afternoon equates a husband's kiss with a knife entering a woman's mouth.

Question 30

All documentaries present an argument of some kind.

Question 31

Man with a Movie Camera reflects fears about the dangers of the mechanical age.

Question 32

Unlike commercial films,documentaries abandon narrative in favor of capturing lived experience.

Question 33

Most documentary filmmakers do not conduct their own research,instead relying on highly-trained research teams put together for the production,usually by a major studio.

Question 34

The increasing popularity of documentary film is evident in the growing number of Academy Award categories developed to honor different aspects of documentary film production in recent years.

Question 35

The sequence of events the woman dreams about in Meshes of the Afternoon are repeated ________ times.

A) two
B) three
C) four
D) five

Question 36

T or F: Stan Brakhage's abstract film Black Ice consists of nothing but extreme close-ups of ice,steam and water,creating a poetic evocation of the three states of H20.

Question 37

In general,documentaries capture an unmediated (or unbiased)reality.

Question 38

In Meshes of the Afternoon,the key is replaced by a ________.

A) coin
B) candle
C) flower
D) knife

Question 39

Films made with the sole intent of persuading viewers of the rightness of a single view are referred to as _______________.

Question 40

A technique commonly used in avant-garde film is super-imposition.

Question 41

How do the motivations behind commercial fiction films,documentaries and avant-garde films differ? How do these differing motivations affect the types of films that are created?

Question 42

Why do some argue that a filmmaker's decision to film another culture or a group of people always involves questions of ethics?

Question 43

Explain why the idea of "truth" is not necessarily a static concept when it comes to looking at documentary films.How was the direct cinema/cinema verite movement an attempt to combat this issue? To what extent were the filmmakers of the direct cinema movement successful?

Question 44

Explain why the production process employed by avant-garde filmmakers allows them to experiment with and change the very language of the cinema itself.

Question 45

___________ films engage viewers by showing them some aspect of the real world.

Question 46

What is the difference between an abstract film and a surreal film? Use examples drawn from class screenings and/or the textbook to illustrate your answer.