FILMMAKERS AS ONSCREEN CHARACTERS IN RECENT LATVIAN DOCUMENTARY CINEMA

Abstract

Since the beginning of the 21st century an increase of films with filmmakers present onscreen can be observed in Latvian documentary cinema. Their stories open up personal issues and family histories, their presence diversifies stylistic approaches to documentary apart from most often used observational form. Issues of formal elements of narrating a story, representation of filmmaker’s self within the film’s narrative, power relations between the filmmaker and the character are at the core of study in documentary film theory, where participatory and performative modes (Bill Nichols), analysis of performative nature of documentary (Stella Bruzzi), and character representation (Carl Plantinga, Thomas Waugh) are explored. The three recent Latvian documentaries discussed in this article present variations of interaction of filmmaker and character/-s in telling the story of the director’s father in “My Father the Banker” (Mans tēvs baņķieris, Ieva Ozoliņa, 2015), disclosing the personality of a friend and an artist in “Forging Condors” (Kondoru kalve, Mārtiņš Grauds, 2018), or questioning the ethical implications of a documentary filmmaker in “Documentarian” (Dokumentālists, Ivars Zviedris, Inese Kļava, 2012). They present various approaches to the issues of representation, choice of formal elements, and interaction between the filmmakers and the films’ characters.