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Working in the Film World of Non Fiction
William T. Murphy
In the short time I have available to speak I plan to describe some of the
principal criteria which archivists in the United States National Archives
use to appraise motion pictures. One caveat, however, seems appropriate
at the outset. Since much of the appraisal guidelines are of such a general
nature, a certain of mixture of interpretation and creativity is needed
to apply them to film. Therefore, the views I am about to express are my
on, based upon my own experience and observations.
Because we work with film as documentation or documentary record, we are
necessarily working in the film world of non-fiction.
Appraisal work is perhaps the most difficult work assignment for professional
archivists. Its standards are vague and elusive. To write carefully argued
appraisals requires knowledge of numerous disciplines and of research trends
and methodologies. Finally, it requires experience with the research value
of motion pictures and mature judgment about their future use.
Ultimately appraisal may be nothing more than educated guess work, an intellectual
process of selection which betrays more about the person doing the appraisal
than the real historical value of the selected motion pictures. Yet in our
contemporary era appraisal has become a dire necessity due to the requirement
to tailor our appraisal or to the mission of our institutions, which must
compete for funding with other pressing governmental priorities. With non-fiction
films, in particular, appraisal is a necessity because of the superabundance
of documentation in the modern era. In this context the notion of preserving
every foot of film or minute of videotape made as documentation becomes
increasingly absurd.
The appraisal of motion pictures in the National Archives is fundamentally
linked to the documentary value of federal records. The legislators who
wrote the National Archives Act of 1934 were perceptive in their consideration
of motion pictures « pertaining to or illustrative of the history of
the United States. » As it applied to the records of federal agencies,
this legislation implicitly recognized the documentary value of motion pictures.
In subsequent laws and regulations, all definitions of federal records deliberately
included motion pictures. In practice and in law, this meant that motion
picture records could not be destroyed without the official concurrence
of the National Archives. Thus, the appraisal task of the National Archives
is to identify records that lack sufficient historical value to warrant
preservation and those that offer permanent research value; in other words,
to distinguish between temporary recorded and permanent ones.
In terms of film, this is not an easy task because the principal set of
appraisal values over the years has been developed primarily for paper records;
These values fall into two categories: evidential and informational. Evidential
value is the usefulness of records in documenting the policies, organization
and functions of an agency. Informational value is the usefulness of records
in documenting the persons, places, things or matters dealt with by an agency.
As a rule, motion pictures are poor formats for documenting the policies,
organization, and functions of government agencies. They can depict and
illustrate operations and functions, but generally they are not the core
documentation the appraisal archivist tries to identify.
At the levels of functions and operation, evidential and information values
coincide; for example, in film documentation of military operations; or
in investigations of accidents or catastrophes. Public information activities
which incorporate motion pictures are closely related to public relations
and how an agency interpreted its actions to its constituents. Films of
proceedings, hearing, speeches, and interviews can be both evidential and
informational.
Training films help to document programs, have an impact on the public,
or depict the agency’s history. The Agency for International Development
(AID) produced hundreds of films and videotapes that are narrow in scope
because they deal with limited fields of technology or endeavor and are
meant primarily for instructional purposes. Few offer any more information
that may be found in a text book or manual, and as such their research value
is only temporary. Yet other AID films have broader implications since they
relate to the study of US foreign policy as it applies to developing nations.
These include films relating to controversial subjects like birth control
and population planning, democratic unionism or organized labor, role of
women in rural societies, and counter-insurgency. AID films of these subjects
are likely to have permanent research value.
Notwithstanding the above relationship of film to federal programs, non-fiction
films are more often selected for their informational value. In the most
general sense, informational value, as we have said earlier, is the usefulness
of records in documenting persons, places, things, or matters handled by
the agency. For motion picture records, this value can be detected in several
ways that are linked to the history of non-fiction film itself.
First is historical context. Motion picture records must be examined in
relationship to the other records of the agency in order to understand their
significance. Too often motion pictures are separated from the documents
that give them meaning. Knowledge of context reveals the purpose for which
films were made and other information essential for any serious research
use.
The second test is uniqueness, which has intellectual and physical manifestations.
Motion picture records provide an audiovisual perspective on the persons,
events, places and things in our collective history. An audiovisual perspective
is an additional dimension of information that cannot be replaced by written
words alone. A written transcript cannot replace a sound or visual record
of important speeches. A written report cannot convey the drama of certain
Congressional hearings or debates. A written report cannot replace the power
of the spoken word no adequately describe the appearance of people, places,
and historical phenomena.
Uniqueness can be applied in the sense of comparing an edited film to unedited
footage. Unedited footage has more comparative objectivity as a source.
It may have greater quantity of footage of the most important sequences,
offering more footage for study and analysis and creative research and production
possibilities. The application of uniqueness as an analytical tool should
take into account the abundance of audiovisual documentation of contemporary
society. However, this requires certain assumptions about continued availability
and preservation of historical materials outside ones own institution.
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The third way to ensure informational value is research importance, which
means demonstrated or anticipated use by researchers. Potential usefulness
of non-fiction film is difficult to appreciate without research room experience.
Researchers study non-fiction film as a source of information about numerous
topics, including the history of film, in particular, documentary film;
the use of film in public affairs; and the history of momentous events,
broad historical phenomena, social trends, attitudes, perceptions, following
the framework of the new social historiography. Researchers use non-fiction
film to study the history of ideas and politics; propaganda films are a
rich source of materials because of their overt and underlying texts.
Finally, researchers use non-fiction film as a means of communications as
well as source materials in countless documentaries and compilation films.
Thus another value of non-fiction film is illustration and presentation.
This is the unique advantage of non-fiction film as historical source materials.
It allows the possibility of illustrating history through the sights and
sounds of the past; it allows future generations to experience the past
for themselves. Needless to say, they are not all objective records of the
past; some have credibility while other do not. It would be naive to accept
them at face value. After all, the camera can lie or it can be an accessory
to a lie. Indeed, as propagandists have long discovered, films can be manipulated
in the editing room to showcase falsehoods and distortions, especially in
times of crisis. The scholars’ critical faculties are needed more than
ever? Nevertheless, in the final analysis non-fiction film enlarges the
range of source materials for the study and reinterpretation of a history
that can be communicated through a book or audiovisual production.
(There followed at the end of the discussion a film clip showing shots of
the handing of battle casualties and shots of Italian villagers from the
outtakes or unedited footage from John Huston’s classic documentary,
The Battle of San Pietro, U.S. War Department, 1945. Since the original
50-minute version which Huston submitted was not saved by the War Department,
the outtakes take on increasing importance as evidence of Huston’s
original conception for the film.)
Le travail d'évaluation en vue de la sélection est
l'une des tâches les plus difficiles pour l'archiviste. Il s'agit
pour celui-ci, d'énoncer des qualités en se fondant sur de
nombreuses disciplines, sur les tendances dans la recherche et la
méthodologie, ainsi que de faire preuve d'un sens aigu de leur utilisation
future.
En définitive, l'évaluation n'est autre chose qu'un travail
de devination intelligente, un processus intellectuel de sélection
qui dit davantage sur la personne qui évalue que sur la valeur historique
du film évalué.
Dans le cas du film de non-fiction plus particulièrement, l'évaluation
est une nécessité en raison de la surabondance de documentation
qui caractérise notre ère. Dans ce contexte, la notion de
préserver chaque mètre de film ou chaque minute de vidéo
comme document ,devient de plus en plus absurde.
Le National Archive Act de 1934 reconnaissait l'importance des films
en tant que documents de valeur historique mais impliquait aussi qu'aucun
enregistrement fédéral ne pouvait être détruit
sans l'intervention officielle des Archives Nationales. Celles-ci ont, par
conséquent, développé des méthodes pour distinguer
entre documents "sans valeur historique" et ceux qui offrent un
"intérêt de recherche permanent", entre enregistrements
temporaires et enregistrements permanents, entre enregistrements à
caractère informatif et ceux qui servent d'évidence.
D'une manière générale les films de non-fiction sont
sélectionnés pour leur valeur informative, liée au
contexte historique et au développement des autres moyens d'enregistrement
utilisés pour les mêmes événements.
Ensuite, entre en ligne de compte la valeur informative unique de l'information
transmise par le moyen de l'image en mouvement.
Un autre critère d'évaluation d'un film est son importance
- démontrée ou anticipée - pour la recherche.
Un dernier critère important de sélection est la valeur d'un
film comme moyen d'illustration et de présentation destiné
à des exposés et aux films de montage.
L'auteur conclut que le film de non-fiction élargit l'éventail
des sources utilisées pour l'étude et la réinterprétation
de l'Histoire et qu'il en facilite la communication par l'écrit ou
l'illustration audiovisuelle.
El mundo del cine de no-ficción
El autor intenta describir los principales criterios de evaluación
utilizados pos los archivistas de los Archivos Nacionales de los Estados
Unidos para su selección con fines de conservación. Consciente
del carácter general de las directivas aplicadas a la evaluación
de películas, que implican necesariamente una cierta capacidad de
interpretación - y de creatividad - por parte de los seleccionadores,
William T. Murphy expone su punto de vista, basado en su experiencia y en
sus observaciones.
La evaluación de las cintas de los Archivos Nacionales está
principalmente vinculada al valor documental de los registros de la administración
federal. Nos encontramos, por consiguiente, en el ámbito de la no-ficción;
en este caso, en el mundo del documento fílmico.
El trabajo de evaluación consiste en detectar y enunciar las cualidades
de las cintas basándose en múltiples disciplinas, en tendencias
de la investigación y en aplicar un sentido agudo de la posible utilización
futura del material conservado.
En un contexto de sobreabundancia de documentos, la noción de preservar
cada metro de película o cada minuto de video se hace absurda.
El National Archive Act de 1934 reconoce la importancia del film
como documento histórico pero al mismo tiempo plantea implícitamente
el problema de la selección. En consecuencia, los Archivos Nacionales
desarrollaron métodos para distinguir entre documentos 'sin valor
histórico' y aquellos que ofrecen un 'interés permanente de
investigación', entre films de carácter informativo y aquellos
que sirven de ilustración para otras formas de testimonio.
De manera general, los films de no-ficción son seleccionados en función
de su valor de información, ligada al contexto histórico general
y al desarrollo de otros medios utilizados para registrar los mismos acontecimientos.
Al valor informativo específico transmitido por las imágenes
en movimiento se añade su importancia para la investigación
así como sus cualidades ilustrativas para la comunicación.
El autor concluye que el film de no-ficción amplía las posibilidades
de recurso a las fuentes históricas tradicionales, facilitando asimismo
su comunicación a través del texto escrito y de los medios
audiovisuales.