History through documentary

By Norman Zafra

Since its inception, the term documentary has been used to highlight any mode of factual presentation from photographic displays to oral histories, although the audience usually associates the term to television and film.

I have always considered documentary film as research, and therefore an effective tool to teach history. A moving picture can spark audience’s interest, which is difficult to achieve in a printed page. The genre’s unique ability to combine storytelling and historical evidence also attracts our attention like no other.

But how can a documentary teach us about history? What strategies they use to picture the past?

Documentary and history

Author and scholar Paola Rabowitz once argued, “documentary cinema is intimately tied to historical memory”. In other words, the documentary can function as a historical artifact itself, now or in the future. No wonder, we sometimes refer to documentaries as historical record. A film does not only transport you to the past but it also provides you a reference to interpret past events and their relationship to the present. More importantly, a film employs a unique treatment in representing historical topics. Filmmakers master the visual and aural medium combining the power of these media to teach us about history.

Historians are afforded more time and space for history writing than documentary makers. They are trained to analyse and present a complete accounting of the complexity of past events. This is the reason why historical texts such as books and journals are a great resource for documentary makers. A historian can also tackle any historical subject matter through text. But a filmmaker becomes constricted with the topical choices given the formal demands of filmmaking as medium.

Once a topic is deemed appropriate for a film, the documentary maker crafts the film using a narrative arc to engage our senses and to communicate a story with a beginning and end. This is not an easy job. To craft a narrative requires research, fieldwork, and the long arduous task of condensing complex historical timeline into a tight film length. This stage is particularly crucial because factual accuracy cannot be compromised when filmmakers exercise their creative freedom as artists and storytellers.

I can easily say that the documentary film I made cannot capture the complexity of Mariano Ponce’s activities in Japan and the full linearity of events leading to the demise of the First Philippine Republic. However, the film medium can effectively bring the audiences to sites of fieldwork and help them appreciate the history through the lens of the filmmaker’s journey and the insights of the experts and subjects interviewed in the film.

Final words

The power and possibilities of using film as a tool to educate are endless. It is an effective resource when tackling and visualizing complicated topics. And history is a fine example.

But documentary films teach history not by running down old dates, people, and events, but by engaging our senses through storytelling. And the reason is simple - audiences mostly remember the story and not the facts. 

When teachers use documentary in the classroom, they offer their students an alternative window to the past. But it entails more than the act of film screening. Teachers play a role in ensuring that students understand the place of the film within its broader historical context. We then develop the students’ sound judgment by letting them absorb the causes and consequences of key events as depicted in a documentary.

Ponce in Kimono is more than a passion project. It taught me as well the value of being a lifelong student of history.

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