Modes of documentary films produced by the future generation of ‘scientists-as-filmmakers’

Abstract

ABSTRACTSix documentary modes are recognised: poetic, expository, observational, participatory, reflexive and performative. Scientists untrained in filmmaking most often choose the expository mode since it possesses the same traits and conventions as used in most scientific narratives. Yet, this need not be the case given that a new generation of ‘scientists-as-filmmakers’, can be taught to appreciate and apply other documentary modes. In this study, we surveyed the possible documentary modes that scientists from nine Swiss universities and research centres would use, both before and after studying filmmaking courses. As expected, before the start of the courses, the majority of the participants (83.33%) said they would use the expository mode, while 27.45% said they would use the observational mode. However, after attending the filmmaking courses, the number of participants interested in the expository mode fell almost by half, while the number of participants who said they would use the observational mode almost doubled. Unexpectedly, after the course the most chosen mode was the poetic (70.58%), and there was also fair amount of interest in the participatory (38.23%) and reflexive (17.64%) modes. The films produced in the future by the generation of ‘scientists-as-filmmakers’ will contain a much greater variety of documentary modes.