Preparation for Presentation

Welcome everyone to the whiley world of Documentaries through the internet.

My project focuses on Documentaries about Japan found through public television. As a non commercial entity that is available, without fee, to an entire region Public Television has an overall feeling of authenticity to their programming, and an assumption of freedom in being able to show whatever they feel like without repercussions from commercial pressure. The small time cook gets air time, and the special antique roadshow, and the BBC has a high authority of having good news ethics and high quality documentary. However, I intend to show that public television documentaries are not always so ideally realized.

After all, they do rely on public funding and public interest in their programming.

I focused on PBS and BBC.These two stations share a lot of cross-pollination in their programming--PBS local stations show BBC programming, and their documentaries are often shared.

A brief overview of the history of Public Television is available as a timeline at Current.org, while a decent overview of BBC is at the Wikipedia entry.

There are four real kinds of documentary that I have been encountering.

The first is the newsreel current events documentary, often focusing on a special interest. Very recently aired, "Japan's About Face" is a documentary on the recent issues with Art 9 and the Self Defense Force in Japan. This sort of documentary tends to be more neutrally focused, but as can be seen in this film, will alide references to the host cultural at times. However, otherwise it is a rather excellent example of documentary in a more neutral mode.

Produced by Micha Fink, who has worked on other Wide Angle documentary reports before, this documentary focuses heavily on Japan--but not as much on the US involvement with the entire issue of the SDF. Wide Angle is funded by a lonf list of names familiar to PBS, including Ford Foundation, and various high profile foundations, and Mutual American Insurance. They claim to be the only international current events documentary program in the United States with "hard hitting interviews" meant to make up for the lack in American television.

Please view:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 4, 3:30 till 4:40
Part 7

Then you have the historical piece. The visuals are evocative of the Orientalist mindset, and the casting reminds me of jidaieki drama in Japan. Often this is strongest in the bookends of the episode, while the actual academic research may be sound. The situational time and place is emphasized in a stereotyped manner. These are heavily tied to academic research.

Japan The Secret Empire
Ep: The Way of the Samurai
Contributing Academics: Michael R. Asulin, Beatrice Bodart-Bailey, Michale Cooper,
And Eiko Ikegami, Herbert Plutshow, Luke Roberts, Cecilia Segawa Seiguchi, Harutoshi Takafuji, Makoto Takeuchi. They are from top universities of America, Europe, and Japan.

Part 1/6
from 6:pp to end
And this one from start to 4:40.
And the beginning of this part.



Then there is the Cultural Quality/Aspect focused piece. Here, the style of the documentary begins to range widely, and the hosts tend to be enthusiasts, or people who 'journey into an experience'. Topics include Geisha, Popular Culture, Samurai Sword Making, Samurai Style Martial Arts. There's often an emphasis on the scared past, Japan 'creating a unique historical treasure' which interacts with Japan's official use of 'cultural treasure' status given to craftsmen understood to be preserving traditional styles of significant importance to Japan. These are far greater in quantity.

Geisha Girl
Aired in 2006 on the BBC; this edition is taken from the Discovery Channel airingNew Link: Please watch at least the beginning ten or so minutes, the rest may also be interesting

Notice the emphasis on constraint, and the sense of a lost artform. There's this fascination with the idea of the Geisha trained girl. However, it's overall not that bad a documentary in terms of presenting information.

Fashion in Japan
This gives you a good idea of what sort of angle things can take.

Again, we have the identity of Japanese as constrained.

And in it's own category is Johnathon Ross, one of the most consistent personalites to show up in the recent range of BBC pop culture Japan documentaries. A very flamboyant and well known host in the UK, he starred as a self-proclaimed Japanophile in the series Japan-o-rama, a miniseries that delved into Japanese subculture one wacky piece at a time. Well known on the internets, he often makes broad claims about Japan and the Japanese, while constantly playing the wacky, crazy, edgy aspects of whatever he's talking about. He has a few newer series in the same vein, drawing off his authority as a host for earlier BBC cult film showings.

Typical Johnathon Ross:
Japanorama: Zoku (tribes); Watch at least half of this episode, at least until the Uniform section about five minutes in is over.

Watch Ep 1 part 1, for a feel