Documentaries have been flooding streaming services and movie theaters for years, and for good reason: They’re typically the least expensive independent films to produce and can spark cultural conversations that draw in a large audience. But with so many to choose from, how can filmmakers set their work apart from the rest?
In Toronto, directors are adopting some unconventional approaches: inserting new theatrical scenes to tell stories that are not cinematically feasible, capturing stunning aerial stunts that go far beyond typical documentary photography, using audio techniques that replicate the protagonists' experiences and even inserting documentary elements into other genres.
“There’s no doubt that we live in a world where non-fiction filmmaking and audience engagement are much greater than we were ten years ago,” says Tom Powers, documentary programmer at the Toronto International Film Festival. “With that rise comes a different set of challenges, as audiences are accustomed to certain visual styles of documentary filmmaking. If you want to stimulate them and encourage them to look at something with fresh eyes, you need to use a different lens.”
One example Powers cites is Patrice: The Movie , a romantic comedy documentary directed by Ted Basson about a disabled woman’s struggle to get married without losing the disability benefits she needs to survive. The film’s star, Patrice Jeter, created props to play her, reenacting scenes from her life with child actors. “Patrice has a million stories from her life, and there’s a lot of what she’s been through that shapes the way she sees the world now,” Basson says. “She’s been working on a graphic novel and has drawn illustrations from her life, and she has a children’s TV show that’s available to the public. It was fun to combine those elements, and it helped us solve the tone problem, because some of the stuff she’s talking about is really serious.”
Producer Kayla Harris co-wrote these scenes with Jeter for the film, which will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8 and stream on Hulu on September 30.
Aerial cinematography has been used to great effect in many successful documentaries, from 2007’s “Man on Wire” to this year’s “Skywalkers: A Love Story,” as well as countless skydiving documentaries. But how many documentaries show cars and offices falling from planes? “Space Cowboy,” directed by Mara Strauch (who directed the 2014 skydiving documentary “Sunshine Superman”) and Bryce Levat, uses stunning imagery to capture the work of stunt cinematographer Joe Jennings. “We could have made the film about his life and career as the guy everyone goes to to make things fly from just his archival footage,” Levat says. “But he never made a car fall through the air, or ‘fly,’ perfectly, so this was an opportunity for us to follow him in that endeavor.” The film opens Sept. 6 in Toronto.
Like Patrice , Olivier Sarpell’s Victor attempts to capture the subjective experience of its main character, a deaf man who volunteers as a war photographer during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “By asking Victor to document his thoughts and feelings in a journal and using voiceover, I think we captured his inner world with greater intimacy than a traditional interview,” Sarpell says. The film uses soft sound “to create the voice of the deaf world, to reflect Victor’s inner life and shape how the audience perceives what’s happening inside Victor’s body.” The black-and-white cinematography reflects Victor’s camerawork and his way of experiencing life, which he says changed from color when he lost his hearing at the age of five.
At least one film shown in Toronto uses elements of documentary filmmaking without being a documentary at all. The animated biopic “Piece by Piece” uses “Lego Movie”-style animation to depict the life and work of musician Pharrell Williams. Despite the direction of veteran director Morgan Neville and unscripted comments from artists like Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake, Kendrick Lamar and Gwen Stefani, all of whom are seen as Lego characters, the film’s visual narrative and some scripted scenes push it into the realm of Lego fantasy films, as well as films like Richard Linklater’s 2001 animated film “Waking Life.” “It was a lot of fun,” says Powers of the Toronto International Film Festival, who was not involved in programming the Sept. 7 special screening, which opens in theaters Oct. 11. “I love films that broaden the audience for nonfiction stories. I always thought it was a film that my 14-year-old son would enjoy, and a lot of times when I try to get him to watch a movie, he says, ‘Anything but nonfiction!’”
