While shooting the documentary Beckham, filmmaker Fisher Stevens stumbled upon the footballer cleaning dishes in his kitchen. The true revealing scene. Stevens grabbed his camera. Beckham stopped. Watching him do something that is so routine to us would have made the audience relate to it more. But this incident highlights the challenges of trying to capture the true essence of somebody's life.
Biographical documentaries are all the rage. From Harry and Meghan on Netflix to last year's Navalny and this year's big hit American Symphony, people love human stories. Keeping the sensational box office documentaries aside, filmmakers continue to explore contradictions that represent both human greatness and flaws. People from all over the world tuned into the documentary Killer Inside: the mind of Aaron Hernandez. A legendary sports star turned murderer. People were fascinated by the potential factors that led to his actions. It also opened a bigger conversation about violence and injuries in professional sports. Each time anybody does anything, there is something to be learned or taken from those actions and decisions. We watch documentaries about celebrities, the royals, sportsmen, criminals, musicians etc because we belong to our history and we try to make sense of our life through the lives gone by. Biographical documentaries then become a significant and influential form of documentary filmmaking.
People who have the luxury of getting a documentary made on them have either succeeded greatly or failed terribly at life. The audience is here for both. A good documentary narrates facts and interprets them for the audience. Scottish historian and philosopher Thomas Carlyle stated that the ‘history of the world is but the biography of great men.’ These heroes (or villains) thus, shape our world and our understanding of it.
Our lives, however, are also made of insignificant moments. Highly dangerous sleep routines, music tastes too mundane to record or breakdowns during family dinners etc. Some filmmakers opt for a chronological narrative and some focus only on certain pivotal moments of the person's life. Another crucial factor is the subject's degree of involvement. A high level of engagement is necessary to obtain a genuine portrayal, but the project shouldn't become a publicity stunt for the personality. The true crime documentary The Staircase came under intense scrutiny due to its biased narrative and one sided perspective. The lack of alternate viewpoints raised many ethical questions about the documentary.
It is impossible for a filmmaker to capture a person wholly and entirely. The best that they can do is give us a voyeuristic view into the lives of people who inspire or caution us. Then it is left to us to decode the meaning and the message behind it. The key is to think of them as humans first. Just like you. Then analyse them as whoever they are. As objectively as possible.