FILMOGRAPHY

The camera is only a dumb machine; it makes no claims to authority. Indeed, the camera is capable of making no claims, no assertions about the world, at all. Everything revealed by the camera has been revealed to the camera, revealed by its subjects in the camera’s presence. And there is no such thing as a revelation that is not true…

Documentaries are not inherently more direct or truthful than other kinds of films. But from this fact it does not follow that documentaries are too naive to take seriously unless they repudiate the aspiration of revealing reality. What particular documentary films reveal about reality, how they achieve their revelations, are questions to be addressed by acts of criticism, not settled a priori by theoretical fiat.