Interviewing Techniques: Searching For The Sugar Man, Malik Bendjelloul's style
Whilst planning my own documentary, I have trying to pay attention to the formatting and presentation styles featured throughout documentaries that I have seen, and though there have been a number of documentaries that I have had issues with for various reasons over the years, I had never actually encountered one which I felt was hurt by its presentation. However, I finally got around to watching 'Searching for the Sugar Man'. The documentary is centred on an artist known as Sixto Rodriguez: compared to Dylan, a man who supposedly shot himself on stage, covered himself in petrol and set himself on fire, said to have overdosed in prison, wrote songs which became the anthems to anti-apartheid protests, gold record sales without so much as a penny making its way to him. And yet the documentary on all of this bored me immensely, with all of these intriguing points, the documentary makers seemed to skip over it all and focus solely on their love for the artist. Malik Bendjelloul, the director of the film spends only a few short moments in the documentary showcasing Rodriguez's life story, and instead focuses the film around two fans trying to find him, and talking about how excited they were to speak to him.
-
I felt that this approach had a negative impact on the documentary, what could have been an in depth retelling of how production companies and record labels stole thousands from Rodriguez, or the impact the arts had on the people of south Africa during the apartheid, it was just about two fans getting to meet their hero and being excited about it. There were a few bits throughout the film which touched on Rodriguez's resurgence, and a bit on his story, but even when he was featured and interviewed at the end of the documentary, the documentary makers didn't really get him to open up or talk about his story, and those that worked with him in the music industry, rather than being questioned on what happened to him, were instead asked what their favourite songs of his were. All of these missteps ruined what could have been a tremendous documentary, and its all because of the approach the filmmaker took when making the documentary. The questions didn't have any particular focus, and the film kept cutting from set piece to set piece without being overly connected, leaving the whole thing feeling somewhat disjointed and left a lot more of the story untouched.
-
Whereas other documentary makers, such as Louis Theroux take their time to get to know the story and find out the in depth information, Malik only really asked surface level questions and didn't find out all that much about the story of Rodriguez. Malik still made the attempt to work with his interviewees to film where they wanted to and to try and get in the head space of Rodriguez to investigate his life. But the overall focus of the documentary was still just on the filmmakers rather than the subject, which should not be done for documentaries, which are made to be informative and investigative. I feel that the documentary could have benefitted from a more streamlined line of questioning to focus the documentary's primary message, and by having the interviewees talk a bit more on their experiences with Rodriguez/the music scene. If more consideration had of been put into showing the story off as a documentary to inform, then it would have been a far better, more informative watch.
-
What I have taken from watching both Louis' documentary on America's most hated family and Malik's Searching for Sugarman is that having a focal point to refer back to and to relate all questions to is integral to a good documentary. Without this, it can leave the entire documentary seeming disjointed and unfinished with certain points being brought up and never mentioned again. I feel that each of Louis' documentaries have a specific goal, and he maintains this goal throughout his films, even if he finds an interesting point to follow through the documentary, he will always bring the narrative back to his original goal. This is where Malik falls short, by having a number of unconnected questions, it makes the documentary seem amateur and lacks an overall informative view for the audience to take in. This is what I now know to avoid, before going into making my own documentary, I shall outline my objectives for the documentary to achieve, and shall write my questions around those, I shall pursue interesting narrative points, as Louie does, but shall always return to my original list of goals and objectives to ensure that my documentary seems professional and is as informative about my chosen subject matter as it can be.
-
I felt that this approach had a negative impact on the documentary, what could have been an in depth retelling of how production companies and record labels stole thousands from Rodriguez, or the impact the arts had on the people of south Africa during the apartheid, it was just about two fans getting to meet their hero and being excited about it. There were a few bits throughout the film which touched on Rodriguez's resurgence, and a bit on his story, but even when he was featured and interviewed at the end of the documentary, the documentary makers didn't really get him to open up or talk about his story, and those that worked with him in the music industry, rather than being questioned on what happened to him, were instead asked what their favourite songs of his were. All of these missteps ruined what could have been a tremendous documentary, and its all because of the approach the filmmaker took when making the documentary. The questions didn't have any particular focus, and the film kept cutting from set piece to set piece without being overly connected, leaving the whole thing feeling somewhat disjointed and left a lot more of the story untouched.
-
Whereas other documentary makers, such as Louis Theroux take their time to get to know the story and find out the in depth information, Malik only really asked surface level questions and didn't find out all that much about the story of Rodriguez. Malik still made the attempt to work with his interviewees to film where they wanted to and to try and get in the head space of Rodriguez to investigate his life. But the overall focus of the documentary was still just on the filmmakers rather than the subject, which should not be done for documentaries, which are made to be informative and investigative. I feel that the documentary could have benefitted from a more streamlined line of questioning to focus the documentary's primary message, and by having the interviewees talk a bit more on their experiences with Rodriguez/the music scene. If more consideration had of been put into showing the story off as a documentary to inform, then it would have been a far better, more informative watch.
-
What I have taken from watching both Louis' documentary on America's most hated family and Malik's Searching for Sugarman is that having a focal point to refer back to and to relate all questions to is integral to a good documentary. Without this, it can leave the entire documentary seeming disjointed and unfinished with certain points being brought up and never mentioned again. I feel that each of Louis' documentaries have a specific goal, and he maintains this goal throughout his films, even if he finds an interesting point to follow through the documentary, he will always bring the narrative back to his original goal. This is where Malik falls short, by having a number of unconnected questions, it makes the documentary seem amateur and lacks an overall informative view for the audience to take in. This is what I now know to avoid, before going into making my own documentary, I shall outline my objectives for the documentary to achieve, and shall write my questions around those, I shall pursue interesting narrative points, as Louie does, but shall always return to my original list of goals and objectives to ensure that my documentary seems professional and is as informative about my chosen subject matter as it can be.
Comments
Post a Comment