ABSTRACT
Many filmmakers shy away from narration because of its association with the voice-of-God discourses of yesteryear. This is a shame, since truly effective narration is a gift to the audience and very satisfying to write. Narration is usually inescapable in films about natural history, science, government, history, as well as in those in avowedly journalistic or diary form. Sometime in your career, you will have to create narration, so keep in mind that it is central to at least three fine documentaries praised in earlier chapters—Alain Resnais’ Night and Fog, Patricio Guzman’s Nostalgia for the Light, and Emad Burat and Guy Davidi’s Five Broken Cameras. In each, a master Storyteller creates a gripping counterpoint between imagery and an interior monologue, and each demonstrates how surely and sensitively a narration can conduct us through humanity’s darker regions.
