Where does one find "truth" in filmic representations? Since the 1920s, when John Grierson applied the term "documentary" to Robert Flaherty's Moana, documentary cinema has been interpreted as a mode of cinematic representation that depicts what is happening or has happened in culture/history. In other words, documentary films have been deemed effective in representing social "truth," in part by contesting the conventions of mainstream Hollywood films. In contrast to how documentary film has been seen to represent "truth," the experimental film has been read, for the most part, as a vehicle for the artistic expression of the filmmaker. Like the documentary, these films challenge Hollywood conventions. However, they do so through formal exploration. In addition, like the documentary film, experimental film can also be interpreted as a representation of culture. Not only do experimental filmmakers challenge the way film "looks," they oftentimes contest dominant ideologies. Therefore, experimenting with formal construction has provided certain socially marginalized filmmakers the opportunity to challenge dominant culture by creating alternative representations that present contestatory perspectives of cultural reality.
Many women filmmakers, past and present, have applied experimental techniques in their films to create representations that function as documentaries. These films can effectively be termed feminist experimental documentaries. I am investigating how certain films function within this designation to illustrate how and why women filmmakers from distinct historical and cultural time periods have contested dominant representations. As an example of recent feminist postcolonial filmmakers, Trinh T. Minh-ha employs an experimental documentary style of filmmaking to challenge the conventions of the documentary/ethnographic film. Her films serve to illustrate how dominant "truths" can be contested formally and thematically. Trinh's recent film, A Tale of Love, will be the focus of this paper. A close reading of Trinh's film will uncover how social and historical issues important to women's lives are represented cinematically. A Tale of Love follows an explicit narrative structure based upon a folktale, and at the same time, relies upon formal experimentation to present an image reflecting the cultural realities of women, most particularly that of the Vietnamese woman living in the United States. Hence, A Tale of Love, offers a feminist transnational perspective, "documenting" issues of gender and ethnicity.
Referring to several theoretical discourses (feminist film studies, documentary film studies, cultural studies, and postcolonial theory), an analysis of A Tale of Love will intersect with the themes of such recent anthologies as Documenting the Documentary: Close Reading of Documentary Film and Video (Barry Keith Grant and Jeannette Sloniowski, Wayne State UP, 1998) and Feminism and Documentary (Diane Waldman and Janet Walker, U Minn. P, 1999). As Waldman and Walker suggest, a closer relationship between documentary film studies and feminist studies needs to be developed. The intersection of these two areas of theory and interpretation relies, in part, upon the long-standing debate distinguishing formalism and realism. This paper questions the polarization of these theories and addresses both in terms of referentiality. In effect, by reading Trinh's A Tale of Love, this paper will address how experimental aesthetics and counter-historical themes represent "reality."