Tonight were presenting a program on the craft and varied history of documentary filmmaking. In the spring we hope to present a program on the creation of music scores for film by taking a close look at the storied career of max steiner, perhaps hollywoods most influential composer. It has been noted that we are presently in a golden age of documentary filmmaking with more documentaries being filmed, screened, and seen, than ever before. But what impresses me more than that, i suppose, is that ive noticed very often these days in advocacy and in educational groups, a particular recent documentary comes up in the group conversation. People reference it, recommend it, and in particular talk about its defining impact on them. Documentaries are becoming more pervasive and an integral part of our conversations about political and social issues. In fact, theyre often framing and shaping those conversations. Why this is happening is perhaps something our guests here tonight will talk about. Jon wilkman screening reality is a wide view of how american truth has been projected, discovered, defined televised , and streamed in more than 100 years of dramatic changes and suggests some of the challenges ahead for documentary filmmaking at a time when our Public Discourse is fraught with division. As i was reading screening reality and came to the final sentences of one of the chapters, i read some lines that felt to me like a cinematic transition and it dawned on me this book was being written by a documentary filmmaker and occurred to me maybe the best person to try to make a coherent narrative of documentary filmmaking was somebody who spent a career making them. Certainly with over 100 years of documentary films and telling the story, a lot of film had to be left, as they say, on the cutting room floor but seems something essential to the craft. Someone needed to be familiar enough with the subject to know the salient points and keep them in the story and know how to find a narrative line to identify the things that have changed, to note the innovation and impact of new technologies and outline the issues and challenges about screening reality that have seemed perennial and endemic that reflect the things weve always confronted in trying to explain to others what weve experienced as real and true. You can learn a lot in reading this book, not only about how documentaries were made but also the very writing of it seems an exposition of documentary skills. Im not sure the subject could have found a person better skilled and suited to tell this story than jon wilkman. Jon is an author and awardwinning filmmaker whose work appeared on abc, cbs, hbo, and a e. His sevenpart series, moguls and movie stars, a history of hollywood was nominated for three emmys. His previous book, footpath was an amazon Nonfiction Book of year. He is a Founding Member and three term president of the International Documentary film association. Tonight we have as a special guest talking with jon about his book, sonara bartels , the chairman of the documentary film academy in burbank and has been involved in making documentary features in television and commercial projects and worked as an assistant director on a number of projects including Reality Television shows for discovery and national geographic. She currently teaches screen writing and documentary writing and producing. And she continues to produce and direct. Please join me in welcoming jon wilkman and sonara bartells to the burbank public library. Thank you. [applause] jon can you hear me ok . What inspired me to write screening reality was a concern about modern arguments about what some have called a post truth era. I was convinced that insights and the evolution of nonfiction film, a craft i spent my professional life pursuing could offer important insights an cautions for the future. I take a long view of this subject. As you see on the screen, the past and future and present can stand side by side. On the left is a kinetiscope, edisons 1890 peep show box. You could listen to a phone graph a photographic record phonograph record wearing 1890s ear buds. On the right is a Virtual Reality scene. From a film called hunger in los angeles. Whats interesting is to see the glasses worn by the woman on the right and the person on the left peering into the peep box. In some ways weve come a very long way and in some ways not much at all. Setting the stage for the invention of movies, the first photographs that moved were created in 1878 by a eccentric california photographer, edward mibrage. He took sequential photographs of a Running Horse to prove that for a time all four mooves were hoofs were all 4 off the ground at the same time. Projected in rapid success, they produce an illusion of movement. So you can argue that the first movie or certainly proto movie from the beginning was a search for truth. Inventors in europe inspired and informed Thomas Edison when he created the first Motion Picture machine system. In 1890s, his associate, k. L. Dixon, shot movies in his shed called the blackmariah, the first movie studio. Ever the entrepreneur, edison captured lab workers sneeze which became the first copyrighted film. Again, it was a search for truth. What does a sneeze look like in a way you never could see in real life in real time . In france in 1895, the brothers august and louie lumiere projected movies on a screen not a box. Their first movies were proteau documentaries, scenes of everyday life and images of distant lands. They called them documentaires. When edison premiered his version of projected movies in 1896 audiences were impressed but many critics saw the inventors vitascope as just his latest toy. No one could envision what you would do with this. Could you sit in a theater and watch scenes from Street Scenes of cities when you can actually go to the city and walk around and hear things and see things. So movies were looked upon as maybe an interesting shortterm fad. The earliest nonfiction films were called actualities. Enterprising cameramen like billy bitzer would make movie history with d. W. Griffin clung to the front of a moving train and shot footage that took moviegoers on trips called phantom rides. That early film you see it now almost every day, the phantom ride continues in watching some of the spectacular imax film. By 1915, movies were no longer considered a fad. They told compelling fictional narratives. The photographer Edward Curtis looked for ways to show the real world. Curtis still photographs of native americans considered at the time a vanishing race led him to make a movie with the people of british columbia. His mix of fiction with fact was a Box Office Failure but suggested developments to come. Newsreels were early approaches to nonfiction filmmaking. During world war i government sponsored film reports played a role in forming the home front but also stirred accusations of propaganda that shattered debates about the role of documentaries in decades to come. The persuasive power of the movies was recognized early, during the first decades of the 20th century when america received new generations of immigrants, educational filmmakers added americanization to classroom curriculum. Films produced by unexpected moviemaker henry ford taught lessons as they promoted his latest automobiles. Another idea which would continue with documentaries of mixing commerce and art in america. By 1922, american movies dominated the world, the products of a hollywood dream factories. That year a surprise hit started inuit family of seal hunters in the canadian arctic. Robert flaherty seen here with his collaborative wife francis produced nanook of the north considered the first documentary. Limited by the bulky camera equipment at the time was inspired by a vision of reality. Flaherty admitted sometimes its necessary to lie to tell the truth. Husband and wife Martin Johnson brought their african adventures to movie audiences in the 1920s and 1930s. Osa in particular was a inspiration to a new generation of women who aspired for a freer life. In the dark age of the great depression, Franklin Roosevelts administration applied Government Solutions to national problems. A 31yearold film critic was chosen as f. D. R. s shooter, his film the plow that broke the planes and the river were examples related to conditions in the great plains advocating for a new deal solution that conservative republicans considered socialistic if not worse. Truly socialistic if not communistic, critiques of the injustice of the 1930 americans came from radical filmmakers like leo horowitz and paul strand. Their docudrama native land made accusations of racism and strong arm union busting. But with theaters controlled by Hollywood Studios it was hard to get it shown beyond small venues with audiences that were already convinced. During the 1930s and 1940s the most popular source of nonfiction filmmaking was the march of time series. Although march of times stories featured actors and reenactments an were far from politically radical they had important influence on Public Attitudes towards the truth in a time of isolationism in the face of an emerging war in europe. Encouraging americans to acknowledge the dangers ahead. When war came to the United States in 1941, many of hollywoods greatest directors signed up to apply their fictional movie skills to making documentaries, seen here upper left, frank capra below with George Stevens and in the center right,rd, and to the William Weiler traded carefully cultured scripts which did not follow plot lines. Screening reality, the nonfiction filmmakers and their films interacted with the world around them. During world war ii a long tradition of Racial Injustice needed to be confronted. The documentary, the negro soldier was an attempt to include africanamericans in the nations military history even as segregation remained in place. After victory, in the film let there be light hollywood director john huston addressed the reality of what combat can do to the human mind and spirit. Even as his film showed how therapy can help, his portrayal of the less heroic sight of war let there be light to be banned for more than 20 years. With the rise of television in the late 1940s and 1950s, even if air time was mostly consumed by easy to take entertainment, the power of documentaries revealed by the journalism of edward r. Murrow and fred friendly and their critical examination of the toxic influence of joseph r. Mccarthy contributed to his downfall. But it wasnt long before challenging long form documentaries and cultural programs were headed towards extinction on advertising driven american tv networks. During the tumultuous 1960s, new Technology Made a new approach to documentary film reality possible. Lighter cameras, more light sensitive film stock and easier recording of synchronous sound made cinema very to possible. Bob drew and ricky leecock to filmmakers like the left and da pennebaker follows bob dylan. Below him, consulting with al meisel and his brother david. In the lower left, fred wiseman contemplates the next edit on his examination of contemporary american life. Then 1973, american viewers were transfixed by cinema verite captured lives of a family. It starts as a sociological examination of the modern American Family and took on the trappings of a reallife soap opera. Again, suggesting things to come. Cinema verite brought a new adage about what a documentary could and should be. Old attitudes that nonfiction films met were meant to be for your were challenged by films like what stock, mixing entertainment with closeup looks of the counterculture in action. Making a documentary required equipment that could be expensive. The cost of processing and editing added a financial challenge to independent documentarians. That began to change with an advent of relatively inexpensive videotape systems. In the 1970s, a new movement called guerrilla tv launched by groups like video freaks. And true value television, tv to be. Tvtv. They fought for airtime on television and succeeded, although their revolution was shortlived. Alternate points of view found more lasting success on Public Television as america became more diverse and multicultural. Henry hampton junior in the upper left produce eyes on the prize about the modern american , civil rights movement. The documentary series chicano did the same for mexican americans. Broughtand the left other stories to the american narrative. The story of harvey milk brought lgbt stories new respect and relevance. Even native americans found their voices on film. Women have been pioneers in the first decades of hollywood history, but by the 1930s, they were sent to decide when the movies became big business. Documentaries created an alternative for women filmmakers to thrive. Barbara koppel captured the power of organized labor and the beginning of the end of the Labor Movement that emerged in the 1930s. In the face of the influence of cinema verite, the historical documentaries of ken burns are proudly traditional. Lengthy looks at the American Experience based on indepth research, formal interviews, and thoughtful narration. During the 1980s and 1990s, the television monopoly for serious documentaries by pbs programs like frontline was challenged by the discovery channel. Perhaps the greatest contribution to the new golden age came from edgy emotional and uninhibited films supervised by hbos director of documentaries, sheila evans. In a time when postmodernism claims truth is the result of multiple perspectives, not objective reality, truth the films of errol morris begin with the thin blue line, argued that how truth is discovered is as important as what it is. His films challenge preconceived notions and demanded viewers question. It up likely motivated environment, many prefer not to. Michael moores politically provocative films are , but he brought something new to his arguments humor. ,his fans laughed. His opponents struck back with rightwing films funded by the deep pocket production money made possible by the Citizens UnitedSupreme Court decision. It declared the expenditure of money for political purposes was an expression of freedom of speech. One of the most prolific documentarians today is alex gibney. His films, like oscarwinning enron, the smartest guys in the room are often based on indepth , print journalism. The film draws a wider audience to investigative reporting that has become vital in truth challenged times. The days when theaters dominated distribution was eclipsed by broadcast television and then the choice of cable. Options,ntly streaming Services LikeNetwork Netflix use of documentaries to expand growth and influence and impact. Making a murderer spans decades with courtroom fiction and crime documentary. Another nonfiction trend is the personalization of filmmaking made possible by inexpensive and easy to use equipment. And Available Online this as division alternatives. As early as the 1920s, americans produced their own home movies, and starting in the 1980s, trained documentarians like russ mcelroy made their lives the subject of films. Like shermans today, everyone march. Has a cell phone and can record and distribute video. With the making experience easy to acquire, audiences can become more sophisticated consumers of screen reality or make truth more insulated and personal. Turning everyday people into tv stars can be traced to the cinema verite adventures of the lives of the American Family. Today producer mark burnett is the king of the document a stout mutant called reality tv. Even if viewers know what they are watching is not always on the up and up, many dont care, preferring to be entertained by the truth they prefer to believe. The apprentice, one of the most successful reality shows crossed the line from credibility appearing artifice to the real world with donald trump becoming the president of the United States. Some documentaries demand viewers confront hard realities. Others are about engaging experiences. The first show films were viewed as carnival attractions, glimpses of the unusual. With bigscreen projections, they can be spectacles, like a train running head on into a station. In the attempt to counter the appeal of television, hollywood filmmakers developed largescreen cinerama 3d. Moderate imax camera is a common way to make watching documentary an immersive expense. Imax could soon be passe if Virtual Reality achieves its promise to conjure Environment Center immersive. It becomes a challenge of story finding, not storytelling, again, document cherries will be challenged by Technology Maintaining a commitment to , evidentiary truth will be more difficult than ever and never more essential. That is it. Thank you very much. [applause] i look forward to talking with you. I have to say that johns book is expansive. Yes, i read it all. I read every 446 pages. Its an amazing breadth of knowledge, an amazing dip into this. Is funny. It im glad you did this slide show so the audience has some context. Have to have, i guess. For me . Ok. Got it. Im glad you put up the slideshow to give people context because initially i had a sort of conservative approach to the the book. Because i thought to myself, how does someone do a history of documentary without including international influences . How does that work . Then as i read the book, i began to lean into it, and the moment i leaned into it, was the moment he got to osa and Martin Johnson. The reason was because i remembered as a child my mother in the 1960s was 30 years old, the mother of six children, housewife, and she decided to become a working mother. Years later, i said to her, how did you have the courage to do what you d