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| In this illustration, it looks like Harvey Pekar is making a documentary of his own. |
NOTE: This article continues my coverage of Ed Wood's When the Topic is Sex (BearManor Media, 2021).
The article: "The Documentary." Originally published in An Illustrated Study of Voyeurism, vol. 2, no. 3, 1971. Credited to "Dick Trent."
Excerpt: "Although the man with the camera still travels to far off lands in search of adventure and to bring new sights to the screen, the new scope of realism gives him an insight to the modern world all around us. We also find that the undersea kingdom is of as much interest to us as Africa was to the generation of the thirties. Here we open up possibilities never dreamed of only a few years ago. And since most of us will never dive down to the depths of the seas the filmed reports become our diving suit and helmet. And we can watch the glamour of the scenes without fear of our oxygen supply ever failing us and leaving us trapped down there with the fishes."
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| A successful documentary from the 1960s. |
Reflections: "The Documentary" stands out from the other articles in When the Topic is Sex for a number of reasons. Most obviously, the topic here isn't sex. Instead, Ed Wood writes with great sincerity about his admiration for documentaries and the brave men who make them. I kept waiting for the article to become explicitly sexual—sex being a popular subject for documentaries, then and now—but it never did. Textually, this is Ed at his most G-rated.
Other than the now-lost industrial films he made for Autonetics in the early 1960s, Ed never attempted to make a documentary of his own to my knowledge. I suppose Glen or Glenda (1953) has a somewhat documentary-like tone during certain passages, such as those narrated by Timothy Farrell. The characters in that film, however, are fictional, and the footage is either staged or stock. Perhaps, in this article, Eddie is daydreaming about what it would be like to make unscripted films.
For one thing, as he points out, there are economic advantages to being a documentarian. Reality-based films do not require large crews or expensive equipment. Reshoots, if necessary, will not cost much either. "The scene can be shot over and over again," Ed claims, "and still there won't be too much of a dent in the producer's budget." Again, as with the other articles in the book, Ed constantly has money on his mind.
Ed also mentions that the "newly developed, high speed film" now allows documentarians to shoot with only natural light, such as that provided by the sun and moon. Later, he declares: "With modern technology nothing is beyond the scope of the documentary producer and his camera." Maybe Ed Wood's secret desire was to become the next D.A. Pennebaker.
If Ed were somehow with us in 2022—alive, in his prime, and ready to make movies again—I think he would be amazed by the existence of digital video and excited about its potential. The low-budget (and no-budget) filmmaker of today has technological advantages that Eddie would have killed for. A director can shoot footage on his phone and edit it on his laptop, then distribute it himself on the internet, all without visiting a processing lab or attending a day of film school. Eddie would be in hog heaven. Finally, the independent filmmaker has been set free!
Next: "Enough Bread for Everybody" (1972)