While Music in Documentary is a narrow area of study, the technological innovations associated with both “music” and “documentary” effectively open it up. The once-crank operated 16mm camera that could capture and expose grains of truth is now a palm-sized device that can shoot, edit, and broadcast high definition music performances on the fly. We can barely remember a time before nature documentaries had lush orchestration, before the talking heads of expository documentaries became the ‘bobble heads’ of reality television, or before self-made music videos, mashups, and audition tapes flooded YouTube. The proliferation of these new platforms and the dawning of the do-it-yourself user have in some ways unleashed the true power and reach of “music” and “documentary” across
the burgeoning global village.
In this regard, the topic we have chosen reconciles a virtually uncharted zone of film studies with the 21st century everyman’s metanarrative. Evidence of mediation, which occupies such a complex position in documentary discourse because of its long-held insistence on providing audiences with objective views of their filmic subjects, becomes a compulsory facet of discussion. The self-reflexive position of the camera and sound equipment, as well as the felt presence of the director, are authenticating elements in documentary practice, rather than components that encourage a distanciating effect between the filmmaker, subject, and viewer. This distinctly contemporary outlook is now being applied to films from decades past, which ignites new interpretations of the texts that comprise the vast and varied canon of documentary, from the conventional to the experimental. Thus, the various intersections of “music” and “documentary” are interdisciplinary, multimedia-oriented, and ubiquitous. With this issue of Cinephile, it is our goal to provide a sanctuary for those intersections.