Skip to content
1981

Documentary Says ‘We’: Lyrical Polyphony as Practice

image of Documentary Says ‘We’: Lyrical Polyphony as Practice

This chapter argues that a polyphonic mode, particularly one based upon the act of reading and performing shared texts aloud and listening for responses across diverse and intersectional identities, can be one way to approach collaborative documentary production. This argument is evidenced in three case studies: (Irene Lusztig 2018), (Lana Lin 2018), and J.R. and Alice Rohrwacher's (2020). In the first two films, participants self-narrate their experience in response to temporally removed texts; in , an mourning ritual includes a performance of multiple elegiac texts as one, intertwining individual voices in a collective political action. Each filmmaker collaborates with participants to visualize and hear a latent community to confront a distinct crisis-systemic sexism, breast cancer, and the destruction of traditional farming. Classic and contemporary examples of polyphony explore the contours of the mode.

Keywords: Collaborative ; documentary ; lyricism ; polyvocality ; women and gender studies

Loading full text...

Full text loading...

Documentary Says ‘We’: Lyrical Polyphony as Practice
Intellect , 158 (2025); https://doi.org/10.1386/9781835950685_11
/content/books/9781835950685.c10
/content/books/9781835950685.c10
Loading

Data & Media loading...

References

  1. Akomfrah, John (2010), Nine Muses, UK, Lina Gopaul, David Lawson.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Bakhtin, Mikhail ([1941] 2011), ‘Discourse in the novel’, in M. Holquist (ed.), The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays (trans. M. Holquist and C. Emerson), University of Texas Press Slavic Series, Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, pp. 259–97.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Carson, Rachel (1962), ‘Silent Spring’, The New Yorker, 9 June, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1962/06/16/silent-spring-part-1. Accessed 15 December 2022.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Chen, Nancy N. (1992), ‘“Speaking nearby”: A conversation with Trinh T. Minh-Ha’, Visual Anthropology Review, 8:1, pp. 82–91.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Certeau, Michel de (1986), Heterologies: Discourse on the Other, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Corrigan, Timothy (2011), The Essay Film: From Montaigne to Marker, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Eco, Umberto (1979), The Role of the Reader: Explorations in the Semiotics of Texts, Advances in Semiotics, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. ‘elegy, n.’ (2022), Merriam-Webster Online, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/polyphony. Accessed 15 December 2022.
  9. Finley, Jeanne C. (2019), Journeys Beyond the Cosmodrome, USA/Kazakstan, https://www.journeysbeyondthecosmodrome.com/film. Jeanne C. Finley.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Juhasz, Alexandra and Lebow, Alisa (2018), ‘Introduction: Beyond story’, World Records, 5, https://worldrecordsjournal.org/introduction-beyond-story/. Accessed 2 December 2022.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Lin, Lana (2021), ‘Possibility made real’, World Records, 5:8, pp. 51–58, https://worldrecordsjournal.org/possibility-made-real/. Accessed 2 December 2022.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Lin, Lana (2018), The Cancer Journals Revisited, Lana Lin.
  13. Lockhart, Sharon (2016), Rudienko, United Kingdom, Sharon Lockhart, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph1xM-gPSFc.
  14. Lorde, Audre (1980), The Cancer Journals, Argyle, NY: Spinsters, Ink.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Lusztig, Irene (2018), ‘Interview with Irene Lusztig on “Yours in Sisterhood”’, Teddy Awards (Berlinale), 21 February, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxqr-6Bvbbg. Accessed 10 December 2022.
  16. Lusztig, Irene (2021), ‘Listening across difference: Feminist conversation, sisterhood, and the “70s”’, Senses of Cinema, 98, https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2021/feature-articles/listening-across-difference-feminist-conversation-sisterhood-and-the-70s-2/. Accessed 15 January 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Lusztig, Irene (2018), Yours in Sisterhood, USA, Komsomol Films.
  18. Petty, Sheila (1998), ‘Silence and its opposite: Expressions of race in Tongues Untied’, in B. Grant and J. Sloniowski (eds), Documenting the Documentary: Close Readings of Documentary Film and Video, Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, pp. 416–28.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. ‘polyphony, n.’ (2022), Merriam-Webster Online, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/polyphony. Accessed 15 December 2022.
  20. Rascaroli, Laura (2009), The Personal Camera: Subjective Cinema and the Essay Film, New York: Wallflower Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Rascaroli, Laura (2017), ‘Narration: Epistolarity and lyricism as argumentation’, in L. Rascaroli (ed.), How the Essay Film Thinks, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 143–64.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Riggs, Marlon (1989), Tongues Untied, USA, Frameline.
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Rohrwacher, Alice (2018), Lazzaro Felice [Happy as Lazzaro], Italy, Tepesta. Netflix.
  24. Rohrwacher, Alice, and J. R. (2019), Omelia Contadina, Italy, Social Animals, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPc72k9rkL8. Accessed 15 December 2022.
  25. Ruby, Jay (1992), ‘Speaking for, speaking about, speaking with, or speaking alongside: An anthropologisssssecal and documentary dilemma’, Journal of Film and Video, 44:1/2, pp. 42–66.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Singer, Ben (1987), ‘Connoisseurs of chaos: Whitman, Vertov and the “poetic survey”’, Literature/Film Quarterly, 15:4, pp. 247–58.
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Sitney, P. Adams ([1974] 2002), ‘The lyrical film’, in Visionary Film: The American Avant-Garde, 1943–2000, Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 155–89.
     [Google Scholar]
  28. Smith, Cauleen (2018), Sojourner, USA, Cauleen Smith.
  29. Vertov, Dziga (1926), A Sixth Part of the World, Soviet Union, Sovkino, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVfPWKSHBIo
  30. Yours in Sisterhood Official Website (n.d.), ‘About’, https://yoursinsisterhood.net/. Accessed 26 December 2022.

References

  1. Akomfrah, John (2010), Nine Muses, UK, Lina Gopaul, David Lawson.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Bakhtin, Mikhail ([1941] 2011), ‘Discourse in the novel’, in M. Holquist (ed.), The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays (trans. M. Holquist and C. Emerson), University of Texas Press Slavic Series, Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, pp. 259–97.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Carson, Rachel (1962), ‘Silent Spring’, The New Yorker, 9 June, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1962/06/16/silent-spring-part-1. Accessed 15 December 2022.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Chen, Nancy N. (1992), ‘“Speaking nearby”: A conversation with Trinh T. Minh-Ha’, Visual Anthropology Review, 8:1, pp. 82–91.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Certeau, Michel de (1986), Heterologies: Discourse on the Other, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Corrigan, Timothy (2011), The Essay Film: From Montaigne to Marker, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Eco, Umberto (1979), The Role of the Reader: Explorations in the Semiotics of Texts, Advances in Semiotics, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. ‘elegy, n.’ (2022), Merriam-Webster Online, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/polyphony. Accessed 15 December 2022.
  9. Finley, Jeanne C. (2019), Journeys Beyond the Cosmodrome, USA/Kazakstan, https://www.journeysbeyondthecosmodrome.com/film. Jeanne C. Finley.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Juhasz, Alexandra and Lebow, Alisa (2018), ‘Introduction: Beyond story’, World Records, 5, https://worldrecordsjournal.org/introduction-beyond-story/. Accessed 2 December 2022.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Lin, Lana (2021), ‘Possibility made real’, World Records, 5:8, pp. 51–58, https://worldrecordsjournal.org/possibility-made-real/. Accessed 2 December 2022.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Lin, Lana (2018), The Cancer Journals Revisited, Lana Lin.
  13. Lockhart, Sharon (2016), Rudienko, United Kingdom, Sharon Lockhart, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph1xM-gPSFc.
  14. Lorde, Audre (1980), The Cancer Journals, Argyle, NY: Spinsters, Ink.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Lusztig, Irene (2018), ‘Interview with Irene Lusztig on “Yours in Sisterhood”’, Teddy Awards (Berlinale), 21 February, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxqr-6Bvbbg. Accessed 10 December 2022.
  16. Lusztig, Irene (2021), ‘Listening across difference: Feminist conversation, sisterhood, and the “70s”’, Senses of Cinema, 98, https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2021/feature-articles/listening-across-difference-feminist-conversation-sisterhood-and-the-70s-2/. Accessed 15 January 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Lusztig, Irene (2018), Yours in Sisterhood, USA, Komsomol Films.
  18. Petty, Sheila (1998), ‘Silence and its opposite: Expressions of race in Tongues Untied’, in B. Grant and J. Sloniowski (eds), Documenting the Documentary: Close Readings of Documentary Film and Video, Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, pp. 416–28.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. ‘polyphony, n.’ (2022), Merriam-Webster Online, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/polyphony. Accessed 15 December 2022.
  20. Rascaroli, Laura (2009), The Personal Camera: Subjective Cinema and the Essay Film, New York: Wallflower Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Rascaroli, Laura (2017), ‘Narration: Epistolarity and lyricism as argumentation’, in L. Rascaroli (ed.), How the Essay Film Thinks, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 143–64.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Riggs, Marlon (1989), Tongues Untied, USA, Frameline.
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Rohrwacher, Alice (2018), Lazzaro Felice [Happy as Lazzaro], Italy, Tepesta. Netflix.
  24. Rohrwacher, Alice, and J. R. (2019), Omelia Contadina, Italy, Social Animals, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPc72k9rkL8. Accessed 15 December 2022.
  25. Ruby, Jay (1992), ‘Speaking for, speaking about, speaking with, or speaking alongside: An anthropologisssssecal and documentary dilemma’, Journal of Film and Video, 44:1/2, pp. 42–66.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Singer, Ben (1987), ‘Connoisseurs of chaos: Whitman, Vertov and the “poetic survey”’, Literature/Film Quarterly, 15:4, pp. 247–58.
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Sitney, P. Adams ([1974] 2002), ‘The lyrical film’, in Visionary Film: The American Avant-Garde, 1943–2000, Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 155–89.
     [Google Scholar]
  28. Smith, Cauleen (2018), Sojourner, USA, Cauleen Smith.
  29. Vertov, Dziga (1926), A Sixth Part of the World, Soviet Union, Sovkino, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVfPWKSHBIo
  30. Yours in Sisterhood Official Website (n.d.), ‘About’, https://yoursinsisterhood.net/. Accessed 26 December 2022.

  • From This Site

    /content/books/9781835950685.c10
    dcterms_title,dcterms_subject,pub_keyword
    -contentType:Contributor -contentType:Concept -contentType:Institution
    10
    5
/content/books/9781835950685.c10
dcterms_title,dcterms_subject,pub_keyword
-contentType:Contributor -contentType:Concept -contentType:Institution
10
5
Chapter
content/books/9781835950685
Book
false
en
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test