Doc Mode 2 - Participatory Mode

When I returned home from my mission, sometimes people would ask me, “Oh, how was Chile?” or “What are the Chileans like?” However, the context and the perceived expected response only allowed for a simple one-line reply. Often, I think we make the mistake of seeing countries or cultures as solely one-dimensional entities capable of being surmised in flat descriptions. Sometimes we think that if we’ve met one person from a specific culture or country that we comprehend how that entire culture or country is. However, within any group of people there is innumerable diversity. There may be unifying factors, such as shared dishes, language, or music and dance, but there are likely more differences between two members of a group than there may be between two members of two different groups. To me God is the author of diversity, but simultaneously, we are all his children and therefore share a common essence. This idea may seem contrary, but I believe that instead of lump summing or generalizing groups, it is important to understand that we are all unique. It is also essential to reject grouping people into “us” and “others”; there is perhaps more that connects us than divides us as a human race.  

With this Doc Mode Activity, I had hoped to identify a few people from specific countries, but to show their own individuality. What was interesting however, was that even those individuals from supposedly very different cultures, shared very common characteristics. I asked each person I interviewed to send me a list of what was important to them personally, (which appears on the first shot of each new story). When we filmed, I asked them to do anything that they liked to do or that they frequently did on a normal day. I wanted to give them complete control over the kind of story we would tell. In the end, all four stories were strikingly similar in many ways. 

The format of delivery most closely represents the participatory mode. This mode “emphasizes the interaction between filmmaker and subject. Filming takes place by means of interviews or other forms of even more direct involvement, such as conversations or provocations,” (Nichols 22). Often in participatory mode, the narrative doesn’t occur until the filmmaker incites the story. It could be a story they are already involved with, or perhaps one that they seek out to investigate. In my film, I tried to have the situations filmed be something that would happen normally in the lives of my subjects, however, the time and context of it happening was directly due to me asking them if I could film them. In the interview with Veronica (Mexico) she wanted me to be involved in what she was doing, and so I too directly participate in the visual narrative.

The films Sicko (Michael Moore, 2007) and Chronicle of a Summer (Jean Rouch, Edgar Morin, 1960), were brought to my mind as I made my own film. All three, employ direct involvement of the filmmaker in the content acquired and the story told. In Chronicle of a Summer, Rouch and Morin find themselves behind and in front of the camera examining subjects like happiness, economy, and the working class. They use interviews and discussions to provoke a story. Sicko also engages with similar methods. Moore seeks out stories, interviews, and creates situations to deliver his message about the corruption of the US health care system. At one point he even takes his subjects on quest to find more affordable and quality health care. The narrative he tells in no way would exist without him inciting it.