Cinéma Vérité - Defining The Moment

Star Review

This is a trenchant and absorbing examination of the cinema vérité movement, which borrowed the naturalistic methods of documentary and combined them with the narrative elements of fictional film to create a new kind of cinema. The film considers the roots of the vérité style through early silents (Nanook Of The North), appraises the sudden rush of films made in the 1950s and 60s and the influence the movement has had on modern movies and television series.
This "documentary of documentaries" is generously laden with clips from classics such as Salesman, Pennebaker's Bob Dylan doc Don't Look Back and Jean Rouch's Chronique d'un Été, whose pan-back shot as a concentration camp survivor muses on her dead father is a classic film moment. The director of Stravinsky recollects how his film's structure was made with the view that the composer would die soon after production, only to be thwarted when he lived for many more years, whilst Barbara Kopple reveals that it is she who screams "don't shoot!" when a strikebreaker points a gun at her camera in Harlan County, USA. Defining The Moment is an invaluable record of direct, powerful filmmaking.

Alex Davidson on 1st May 2006

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Film Description

A unique 'documentary of documentaries', shot with lightweight equipment in vérité style, this is a comprehensive history of the documentary programme from the co-director of 'Manufacturing Consent'. It features footage from verité classics including Lonely Boy, Primary, Don't Look Back, Salesmen and many more, from Nanook of the North to The Blair Witch Project and also includes interviews with some of the masters of the observational style of documentary making.

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This documentary by the National Film Board of Canada (and directed by Peter Wintonick) is an excellent aesthetic survey of the fly-on-the-wall documentary styles that... more >

This documentary by the National Film Board of Canada (and directed by Peter Wintonick) is an excellent aesthetic survey of the fly-on-the-wall documentary styles that developed side-by-side in the USA, Canada, France and the UK in the '50s and '60s.
Although focusing on a specific historical moment, the film takes the story to the present, and will be of interest to any student of documentary. This film is full of relevant extracts and commentaries, and features such legendary names as Robert Drew, Albert Maysles, Jean Rouch, Frederick Wiseman, as well as more recent makers such as Jennifer Fox.
A great film for film students.

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