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Docs Are Funny! - SXSW and Documentary Films

Published on May 18, 2007

Documentaries have a bad rep. If you are reading this, you probably already know that documentaries are often moving and even entertaining but you might not be fully convinced that they can also be funny. In a landscape where festivals usually create a purgatory for their docs, the South By South West Film Festival (SXSW) has a history of spotlighting documentaries alongside narrative features. And most of these docs are quite funny. MediaRights.org sent Angela Tucker and Beth Davenport a to SXSW this year to bring you highlights on some of this year's docs.

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Confessions of a Superhero

Hey, are you laughing with me or at me?

Quite a few films at this year's festival deal with characters that ride the line between bizarre and downright absurd. Packed Austin theaters were grimacing and simultaneously bursting out into laughter while watching mentally unstable streetwalking superheroes and sexually ambiguous, big cat training performers—to name a few. This begs the question: what exactly are we laughing at when we explore the dark side of humanity? Do we feel exposed because we can relate to these characters' intricacies and flaws? Are we uneasy about seeing such real, awkward moments? Or, are we tapping into our inner adolescent who simply feels better when laughing at someone else?

Almost every doc filmmaker who has made a character-focused film has come up against the struggle of effectively portraying the personalities and quirks of their subjects without skewing the truth or poking fun at their subjects. Confessions of a Superhero explores the lives of three mortal men and one woman who make their living working as superhero characters on Hollywood Boulevard. The film's director, Matt Ogens, skillfully and responsibly brings to the screen the stories of his four main characters—Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and The Incredible Hulk— without exploiting their quirks, eccentricities and, in some instances, insanities.

Election Day

Does changing the world have to be so darn serious?

Documentaries that tackle important social issues have been an industry mainstay. Arguably one of the best ways to inform and illicit change is through the medium of film. However, we've all endured the overly serious, chock full of facts and empty on entertainment, issue-driven film while embarrassingly covering our yawns. In recent years, many filmmakers have used the funnier side of today's problems to convey their messages.

Normally, one wouldn't expect to find themselves chuckling in a theater watching a film about Election Day 2004. An ex-felon voting for the first time and a factory worker debating gay marriage don't exactly raise the humor ante. However, director Katy Chevigny has allowed the stories of ten people from across the US, to speak for themselves. In true cinema vérité fashion, the film follows the characters from early morning until well after midnight on Election Day. What could have been a sober account of an election is veered into an anecdotal sketch of the struggles, victories, defeats and ironies of the everyday American person trying to vote.

"My favorite documentaries are those that both have something to say—either through the story, the characters or a unique perspective on society—and that also offer a creative approach to filmmaking. This approach can be many different things, but on some level it means making a documentary feel like a 'movie.' Election Day is meant to play like that, with politics, humor, emotion and history—basically everything you find in life but in movie form."

~Katy Chevigny, Director of Election Day

A Lawyer Walks into a Bar

Can I tell you a joke?

Punch lines are the specialty in A Lawyer Walks into a Bar, director Eric Chaikin's look at America's fascination with lawyers and lawsuits. The film explores the influence of the law and its practitioners on American culture, while following six characters as they do whatever it takes to become lawyers themselves.

This may not seem like particularly funny material. This is why Chaikin came up with a device to directly incorporate humor into the film. Intercut between vérité footage, the film features standup routines about lawyers from comedians such as Eddie Griffin, and Michael Ian Black. These moments emphasize the fact that, as Chaikin says, "lawyers are the last people you can make fun of and not have to go to sensitivity training."

Documentaries that address serious subjects in a refreshing way are vital to reaching new audiences. The filmmakers demonstrate the importance of humor in storytelling, and get the dialogue going in a way that has audiences reaching for a post-screening beer instead of a double espresso. These films show that to keep the vérité in cinema, doc filmmakers have to get off their high horses and keep it real.

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