Early film is… strange by modern standards. The first of the Lumière’s public film showings is La Sortie de l'Usine Lumière à Lyon [Workers Leaving the Lumiere’s Lyon Factory] (1895) is also the first of what would be called ‘Actualités’ or ‘actuality films.’
Actualities are the precursors of documentaries. They’re non-fiction, in the same way ‘creative writing’ or ‘reality television’ are non-fiction: unscripted, but not necessarily organic. With a number of these films, the events are staged, but without a predefined outcome.
It’s a genre that I find myself returning to again and again.
Actualities are a bit more of a technical exercise than a true documentary. A documentary documents events and/or educates the viewer. An actuality doesn’t have these larger objectives; it just exists.
... I have been taking a self-portraiture photography course the last couple months. The first assignment was actually to take video. As I’ve done a lot of self-portraiture in the last year, I decided to film myself getting ready and a Fæking-style photoshoot. Which resulted in two hours of footage.
And I found myself really appreciating the æsthetics of the film stills. These moments that are simultaneously unconscious and performative.
This opens an interesting realm of future work, examining the creation of identity via both our mundane actions and the personas we create to show the public.
It should be noted that film, as a medium, can be extremely emotionally manipulative via musical and visual cues and the Kuleshov effect (meanings derived from montage).