#MediaMonday: A Woman of Documentary
Good Morning Everyone,
Before I forget, join us tomorrow at 5pm PST for Teacher Talks via Zoom. We will be talking about podcasting and Spring Nationals...and whatever else we feel like.
Today, for my series on National Women's History Month, it is my honor to share someone with you that I personally hold in very high esteem.
If you have never heard of an extraordinary woman by the name of Elizabeth Lo, you are in for a real treat.
I first encountered Elizabeth while scrolling through www.shortoftheweek.com and found her incredible short documentary, Hotel 22. After viewing this moving and unique piece, I reached out to Elizabeth about how connected my students became with her work. Not only was she humble and kind, she agreed to a FaceTime call with my class to further discuss her films. Since that day, Elizabeth made a lifelong fan and friend in me.
Elizabeth has a bio that would even give Ken Burns a run for his money. She has had work screened at Sundance, MoMA Museum of Modern Art, SXSW, True/False, Tribeca, Hot Docs, New York Times Op-Docs, Field of Vision, and PBS’ POV. Elizabeth has been featured in Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film, DOC NYC’s 40 Under 40 List, Cannes Lions’ New Directors Showcase, and the artist academics of Locarno Film Festival and New York Film Festival.
Her work is extraordinary and she is currently releasing a feature in theaters called Stray. However, her documentaries are not exactly what you would consider a traditional documentary. Her style is called Direct Cinema.
So today's lesson is: What is Direct Cinema Documentary?
Direct Cinema, also called Observational is a narration-free style of documentary that uses the collected audio clips and images to motivate the story. In other words, it is a purely visual style of documentary filmmaking. (Pretty cool, huh?)
For this lesson, I am suggesting that you watch her iconic short, Hotel 22. However, this film does contain some language that may not be appropriate for some of our classrooms. Therefore, watch it ahead of time and if you deem it to be too difficult, check out her other films and choose one more appropriate for your class.
This film took weeks to plan and execute. To begin, Elizabeth rode the bus with the homeless population for weeks just getting to know them. Then, she progressively started bringing bigger and bigger cameras on to the bus. All the while, she kept asking permission to take photos and videos of the other riders. When it came time to shoot her film, she had earned their respect and trust. What you see in this film is a compilation of two nights of shooting.
Here is the lesson:
Tell your students about direct cinema. Have a conversation about what they expect to see and how this might be different from what I understand of traditional documentary.
Watch one of her films (I suggest Hotel 22).
After viewing the film, have the students break up into small groups and create a checklist of major characteristics of the style of documentary.
Have the students write down the 3 most important characteristics on a Post-it note.
Collect the post it notes in a common area in the room.
Go over the post it notes as a class and come up with a formal definition of direct Cinema based on the observations of the students.
Talk about the strengths and weaknesses of this style documentary.
Ask the students if they would ever want to make a documentary like this and why they would be motivated to do so.
I hope you love interacting with Elizabeth's work and discussing this amazing style of documentary.
For more of her films, visit www.elizabeth-lo.com.
Have fun and I will talk to you soon,
Josh Cantrell