Documentary Voices

January 25, 2012 - April 18, 2012

Documentary Voices is presented in conjunction with the UC Berkeley course History of Documentary Film, taught by Jeffrey Skoller during the spring semester. The series begins with a screening of PFA’s recent preservation of the legendary cinema verité-style fiction film David Holzman’s Diary. We also present three programs of animated documentaries: The Green Wave, which uses animation and a range of new technologies to document the 2009 Iranian "Green Revolution"; Kongo, which combines animation and historical footage to trace the history of Congo; and a program of documentary animation shorts. These latter works commemorate the publication of Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal, guest edited by Jeffrey Skoller, who will introduce two of the programs. The special issue Making it (Un)real: Contemporary Theories and Practices in Documentary Animation features essays and reflections by a range of contemporary scholars and filmmakers on, in Skoller’s words, “this hybrid form that mixes fact and fiction, analysis and speculation, and the high seriousness of documentary nonfiction with the playfulness of animation.” It features articles by Karen Beckman, Steve Fore, Annabelle Honness-Roe, Laura U. Marks, and Tess Takahashi and artworks by filmmakers including Lewis Klahr, Abraham Ravett, and Jacqueline Goss.

Documentary Voices continues in March and April with recent films that document the aftermath of war and the costs of global development, as well as a village that time seems to have forgotten. From essay films to documentary-fiction hybrids, the series highlights the range of documentary styles and approaches being employed today.

Kathy Geritz, Film Curator

Wednesday, January 25, 2012
7:00 p.m. David Holzman’s Diary
Jim McBride (U.S, 1968) New PFA Preservation Print! A New Yorker’s artistic quest to record his own life on film soon turns to disaster in Jim McBride’s prophetic take on cinema verité, even more relevant in today’s twenty-four-hour reality-show saturations. “A totally delightful satire on 'the blubber about cinema vérité'" (New York Times). (73 mins)

Wednesday, February 8, 2012
7:00 p.m. The Green Wave
Ali Samadi Ahadi (Germany/Iran, 2010). Introduced by Jeffrey Skoller. This riveting documentary for the twenty-first century combines powerful animation, minute-by-minute Twitter feeds, blog accounts, and cell phone footage with conventional on-camera testimonies to recount the abortive 2009 antigovernment Iranian youth revolt. Dubbed the Green Wave, it was a revolution in flux, yet evergreen with hope. (80 mins)

Wednesday, February 22, 2012
7:00 p.m. Making it (Un)real: Animated Documentary Shorts
Introduced by Jeffrey Skoller. This program of hybrid animated documentaries highlights a variety of approaches and concerns with work by Sonia Bridge, Chris Landreth, Ken Jacobs, Kota Ezawa, Sheila Sofian, and Jacqueline Goss. (95 mins)

Wednesday, March 7, 2012
7:00 p.m. Le Quattro Volte
Michelangelo Frammartino (Italy, 2010). Described by J. Hoberman as “grave, beautiful, austerely comic, and casually metempsychotic,” Le Quattro Volte is set in southern Italy in the ancient mountainous region of Calabria. Virtually wordless, it chronicles cycles of life in a small village. “Nearly every shot contains a revelation, sneaky or overt, cosmic or mundane”(New York Times). (88 mins)

Wednesday, March 21, 2012
7:00 p.m. Distinguished Flying Cross
Travis Wilkerson (United States, 2011). Travis Wilkerson in person. A father and his two sons discuss the older man’s experiences in the Vietnam War—these simple visuals, intercut with footage shot by soldiers, comprise the majority of this new film, a step towards a cure of our cultural amnesia regarding the war. From the director of An Injury to One. Preceded by Wilkerson’s short essay film Fragments of Dissolution (2011). (87 mins)

Wednesday, April 11, 2012
7:00 p.m. 24 City
Jia Zhangke (China, 2008). A Sichuan industrial complex is razed to make way for upscale condos. “Blending fiction with documentary, (Jia) brings huge stretches of long-repressed history to life on an intimate scale” (The New Yorker). (107 mins)

Wednesday, April 18, 2012
7:00 p.m. Granito: How to Nail a Dictator
Pamela Yates (U.S., 2011). Documentarian Yates revisits footage from her groundbreaking 1984 film on the war in Guatemala, When the Mountains Tremble, to help prosecute the former Guatemalan dictator. “Doesn’t simply relate history; it is also part of history” (New York Times). (93 mins)