Magical History Tour – Talk to Me! (2)

A surge in technology at the end of the 1950s revolutionized documentary film (and not only that). The development of lightweight, synchronized 16 mm cameras and microphones and the production of highly sensitive film and fast lenses enabled (sometimes diametrically opposed) documentary film movements such as Direct Cinema in the USA, Cinéma vérité (or Chris Marker's "Ciné, ma vérité") in France, and Free Cinema in Britain. Here, the restrained observation of "real" events, there the intervention in events for the purpose of staging "reality". The films presented in the second part of our Magical History Tour on speaking in documentary film were shaped by the new possibilities and discussions, or decades later presented variations on them. A series of social X-ray images, poetic frescoes of everyday life, and cinematic pulse takers of political conditions. (Milena Gregor)