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A Conversation with Sally Berger, Organizer of MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight, 2009

Published on February 18, 2009

Sally Berger, Assistant Curator, Department of Film at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), talks with Arts Engine’s Production Intern Ketty Henri about Documentary Fortnight, 2009, MoMA’s annual showcase of nonfiction film and video.

Many of this year’s films focus on the american political landscape and zeitgeist. was this a pre-determined theme or was it developed through the analysis of the films that you have viewed over the past year(s)?

Sally Berger, Assistant Curator, Department of Film at The Museum of Modern Art

The American political landscape and zeitgeist surfaced as a topic that filmmakers were addressing in films that were completed this year. I believe that it is in response to the fact that America was coming into an election year and many filmmakers were thinking about American history and what it means to live in America and to be an American. This is specifically true of the films: The People Speak; California Company Town; Minot, North Dakota; several of the shorts in the super 8 program; many of the Third World Newsreel films; and Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind.

What do you want the viewing public to come away with after attending this festival?

An appreciation of the expansiveness of the documentary form and a sense of wonderment and new knowledge.

The festival’s opening night film, The People Speak is inspired by Howard Zinn’s books A People’s History of the United States and Voices of a People’s History of the United States. Were you especially interested in films that might have a community already built around it?

It never occurred to me that the People Speak is a film that addresses a certain ‘community.’ To my mind, it is an all-encompassing, intimate look at American history through the actual voices, documents, speeches and texts that have been spoken and written by its people and citizenry. The audience experiences the film like one feels when doing original research - it captures the actual sense of creation, of discovery.

Why do you feel that it is important to explore the aesthetic of lyricism in documentary film? How do you define lyricism as it relates to documentary film?

There are many ways to make a documentary and viewers respond to different approaches, just as they respond in different ways to fiction cinema. I am interested in all forms of documentary, have a broad view of what makes up documentary and particularly like non-fiction forms that push new boundaries.

When a documentarian is on the brink of fiction and non-fiction new things open up in the way one experiences the film. At these moments we learn new things about our selves and our perception of the world not simply new information on a certain a topic.

Flower Bridge by Thomsa Ciulei, Still Point by Alfred Guzzetti, Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind by John Gianvito, and Eternal Mash by Catherine Van Campen are just a few of the titles in the 2009 Documentary Fortnight that use more experimental approaches. Their lyricisms are in the respect for the subject, the considered use of cinematography, timing, framing and shaping of story.

How does the ethos of modern art influence documentary film?

Documentary film is a form, an approach to art and filmmaking that has existed from the earliest moment of filmmaking in the late 1800s. It exists alongside and as part of the eras of art history such as in modern, contemporary and post modern art.

Works such as Alfred Guzzetti’s Still Point shot in urban and rural American landscapes and Accidente shot in the Brazilian landscape of Minas Geras make me think of the abstraction in modern art. Film has its own terminology. For instance Tthomas Ciulei’s Flower Bridge is a contemporary hybrid style of fiction and non-fiction.

Face of a Woman and Mental use cinema vérité shooting styles but with the filmmakers’ own approach to their subject, not following a particular manifesto. Iraqi short films could be called essayistic, and are based on footage found on the Internet and shot by private individuals in combat areas. This year we have many examples of different styles, many of which feel poetic - relying on the sense of visuals and editing.

What do you hope that the live performances of behind the scenes stories performed in the Moth: Stories from Behind the Scenes of Nonfiction Film will document about documentary film? Is it possible to reveal more to the audience than what is already expressed in a documentary film?

We will have to see and find out. Everyone is very nervous - most documentarians prefer to be behind the camera. At the same time, there is so much that happens on a documentary shoot that never makes it into a film. We wanted to capture that, as well as to pick up on the notion that documentrians are in essence storytellers. This is why we love the documentary—it is akin to oral history.

How has the festival changed over the years? What future trends in the genre are you most excited about?

There are more documentarians making films and we are experiencing a renaissance of the non-fiction form. I love to see people taking their cell phones, snapping pictures and being able to capture essential images. As well I like the work that takes five years to make, when a maker follows a certain story over a long period of time to get it just right.

Screenings are from February 11-25, 2009.

This article is available for noncommercial use under a Creative Commons license. It was originally published on MediaRights.org, a project of Arts Engine, Inc. This notice must accompany the article at all times.

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Hi Sally,
A very big thank you for posting a reply and your kind offer to help. That’s really appreciated.
I have got it all worked out already by rereading your suggestion and this reply again.
Have a great day.

Posted on 2009 06 22 by johnstevens