Touching The Void documentary analysis

Touching The Void (2003)- Kevin Macdonald 

Touching The Void is a performative documentary directed by Kevin Macdonald. It is about two mountaineers who climbed up the west face of Siula Grande in 1985. The documentary re-enacts their journey through a poetic mode to endorse the audience in the tragedy of Simon Yates and Joe Simpson’s life changing experience.

Throughout the documentary there is a constant emotional and subjective aspect to emphasise the tension to the audience. In one of the most popular scenes there is a poetic mode portrayed in the cinematography and editing. This specific scene is when ‘Joe’ is deteriorating upon his complete lack of energy as he becomes, what seems, bewildered by reality. The style is lyrically linked with the drone soundtrack along with a slow motion, reverbed version of ‘Brown Girl in The Ring’ by Boney.M. Then played on its own abstractly to resemble what Joe was feeling at that moment. The cinematography also contributes to this by using abstract camera angles and spatial juxtapositions which disorientate the audience as the rest of the documentary is structured through continuity editing.  

Touching The Void (1988)

Touching The Void (1988)

This is relevant to my project as it contains a certain subjective interpretative style that doesn’t make it too intense for the audience but gives a real-life perspective. I will use this technique in my poetic documentary to show the experiences that customers of Sheffield Nightline go through. However, ultimately I would to make an unbiased point and just provide a narrative in a ‘beginning, middle and end’ structure, such as David Maysles explains, “Part of our whole purpose is to make the viewers their own commentators... Narration is only a leg that you use for support if you need it.” (Maysles, D; 1964; 263).  

Bibliography

·         COUSINS, Mark and MACDONALD, Kevin (1996). Imagining Reality: the faber book of documentary. Faber and Faber limited, Queen Square London.

·         KOCHBERG, Searle (2002). Introduction to Documentary Production: a guide for media students .Wallflower Press, London.

·         NICHOLS, Bill. (1942-2001). Introduction to Documentary. Indiana University Press.

·         Touching The Void.(1988). [online]. Directed by Kevin Macdonald. Youtube. 22^nd December 2014.