Sunday, June 9, 2013

Not interested in the so-called “Pure Documentary”: Noel Burch


Noel Burch, the famous documentary film director, said that he is not interested in the concept of “pure documentary films, which has no message to convey.  He was speaking at the ‘Meet the Director’ conducted in connection with the sixth edition of IDSFFK at Press Club. 

In his opinion documentaries are considered to be made only for some ‘elitist’ group of intellectual people, and not for the masses.  This assumption results in the decreased viewership of documentary films. But, Michael Moore, filmmaker, might be an exception in this case as he has been able to gather a significantly large number of audience for his documentaries.

Famous cinematographer and director, Santosh Sivan, talked about his documentary film “Oru Kuttanadan Karshakan.”  He said that he might have ended up being a farmer if not a cinematographer, as most of his relatives are associated with farming. The film portrays the contrast between the Kuttanad in the past with the present.

M. K. Vijayan, a farmer and the male protagonist in the film, assisted Sivan for the making of the film. Vijayan opined that there’s both good and bad changes happened to Kuttanad, and most of them are mainly due to modernization. The good ones are that the government is more supportive of farming, more tourism related activities are going on, and the mechanization of farming is a great leap for the agricultural people. But like everything, there a dark side too.  But it’s not an investigative or an activist film; rather it showcases more of an insider viewpoint of the life of farmers in Kuttanad.

Betty Bernhard also participated in the programme. Bernhard who is more associated to theatre than celluloid, detailed about her film “Out! Loud!” as a documentary that draws parallels between ancient Indian stories, such as the Puranas, wherein representations of homosexuality and trans-sexual activities are clearly available.


She said, it’s her first time working with Malayalam directors, and the experience was great. When asked about whether she liked Kerala, “What’s not to like about Kerala” was the reply. The people, food, backwaters and classical dance especially Krishnanattam and Koodiyattam are so memorable experience and that is the reason she is ready to travel the 22-hour long flight from Los Angeles to Kerala.

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