An Experience with Documentary Films

What is a documentary film?
A documentary is a film that records facts and realities, authenticating the events from a true-to-life perspective, about an issue, a person or a place. A documentary film depends on scientific research stating the importance of the subject, the reason for choosing it and a historical background in addition to the aims of the film.

The types of documentary films cover all aspects of life and tackle all the political, economic, social, religious, environmental and cultural issues of the society.
Documentary films are considered the real face of media and the ultimate goal of production. A lot of documentary films are also considered academic and scientific references as many of them are shown to students in western universities as references in sociology, anthropology and biology among many other fields of science.

There should be new rules for evaluating productions. Such rules should give each production its proper evaluation according to its standard, the efforts exerted in the film and the nature of the film itself . Photography, music, scenes, editing, effects and narration should all be taken into consideration when evaluating such a film. That step, if taken, will sure raise the standard of producing documentary and narrative films alike.

Another factor in evaluating Arabic documentaries is that western documentary films are marketed by private distribution companies. Those companies use dubbing and voice over techniques in a hasty and inaccurate manner to reproduce such good films and resell them to Arabic channels at low prices: 500 to 750 US dollars. Hence the question: If good quality western documentaries are sold for such low prices, why bother producing Arabic ones at costs far beyond such amounts of money?!

The Arabic market is neglected, and not addressed, by the western producers. While western TV channels pay huge amounts of money to buy and acquire outstanding documentary films, those films are sold to the Arabic channels after decades of producing them. Such films, in spite of their good quality, become old and obsolete. Furthermore those films are meant for the western viewers and do not reflect the vision or the reality of the Arab world . As a result depending on them means that the Arabic documentary production would perish once and for all.

Strangely enough I managed to penetrate the western market by producing some films that reflect the Arabic culture from an Arabic point of view. Some of those films were shown in specialized international and western channels such as the (National Geographic) and (Rai-1) and were also translated for many international channels with huge profits, tenfold of what Arabic channels would’ve paid.

The real success is to reach that market which has precise and tough standards for the quality of the films shown. Status is earned not given, for such markets do not discriminate and pay no attention except to the artistic quality of the production.

Many western channels are usually not satisfied with the standard of the Arabic productions and when they plan to produce a film in an Arab country, they send a full staff to make that film ignoring any cooperation with local directors.

What is even stranger is that I succeeded in penetrating the western market, showing my films on leading and specialized channels but at the same time failed to convince many Arabic channels to change their rules of evaluation or overcome the mafia that controls evaluating and buying films.

Another reason for the rarity of documentary films is an academic reason, for such films require a lot of reference and research on the subject of the film. The information presented also needs deep scrutiny to void any false information which jeopardizes the credibility and integrity of the film.

One more reason to avoid producing documentary films is the difficulties associated with such production and the style of directing them as both require long periods of photography, distant locations and long journeys.

The success of a documentary film depends on a lot of elements related to the directive vision of the film. Some of such elements are:

1. The choice of production constituents, like the capable and qualified photographers, technicians and production management, in addition to the technical sides like cameras and other equipments that allow the director a wide range of choice of pictures.
2. A big and flexible production budget which enables the director to be creative and distinctive away from traditional tools of production.
3. The distinguished ability to choose the subjects in order to tackle new and original topics not familiar to the audience in addition to the precise choice of locations.
4. Rich photography with accurate and imaginative choice of angles in accordance with the known basis of directing and a variety of sizes in pictures.
5. The cinematographic vision of the film with the suitable rhythm in narration, concentration of scenes and using one camera. It’s also vital to avoid unnecessary expatiation so as to create the excitement needed by the viewers.

Writing a script for a documentary film requires certain qualities among which are:

1. Accuracy in the information and data with authentic reference and avoiding unproven theories.

2. Simplicity in providing the viewers with the information as the ability to follow varies from one viewer to another. The script should be smooth, fluent and suitable for the majority of viewers.

3. One picture is better than a thousand words. So the script should be devoid of any unnecessary or unjustified details.

4. Keeping away from boring and complex scientific scripts so as to maintain the level of interest and excitement for the viewers.

5. The relative vision and perspective that deliver educational, political and social messages through the coherence of the scenes and events.

 

My experience with documentary films concentrates on the desert environment and documenting the Bedouin heritage before both were overwhelmed by civilization and globalization. By that I aspire to create a full visual library about deserts and their Bedouin dwellers in different parts of the world. So I visited the deserts of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia and Morocco. I also visited non Arab countries with types of non Arab Bedouins like the Mongols.

I’ve specialized in the most difficult type of documentary films to produce. All my films are photographed in distant desert sites, not familiar to the viewers. That requires full teams of technicians and management staff, mobility in the desert, in long and painstaking journeys full of adventures and dangers.

Such type of work requires deep patience and long waiting to capture the photographic material of the films which contain rare heritage scenes or wildlife in the desert. All that doubles the efforts, waiting for the events to unfold and to capture the wild creatures which, of course, follow no orders nor take directions by the film maker.

Work on this type of documentaries is considered the long and tough road avoided by many others as the director here has no control over many of the production elements in comparison with drama directors who can control and guide the performance of actors, lighting and the choice of sets.

I also rely on a simple equation that combines the enjoyment and excitement and is also void of uncalled for expatiation. That equation may seem simple as a rule but it is so difficult and demanding to put into practice, as it calls for precise and selective choice of scenes and a superb scenario so as to attract the viewer’s attention with what’s novel and exciting.

The biggest challenge here is to make the documentary a material appealing to the audience and make the viewers interested in the film and keen to follow it in the crowd of channels and the abundance of material they show.