Documentary filmmaker offers insight to his craft

By Willy Flockton
Daily Bruin Contributor

The word “documentary” sends shivers up any spine.
Not shivers of coldness, but something much, much worse: shivers of
sleepiness. “Documentary” is often synonymous with the
word “boredom.”

“There is definitely a public perception that documentary
film is boring,” said Heather Wilson, a senior film and
television student. “It’s an important cinematic medium
which has long gone unappreciated.”

However, one documentary filmmaker has been hailed for his
inability to bore.

He has been described as the most accomplished, passionate,
innovative and “exciting” American filmmaker. His films
have appeared on national television and have won Emmys. His name
is Alan Berliner, and he is at UCLA.

Tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the James Bridges Theater, as part of
the “Documentary Salon” series of films, he screens for
free his early short films and the film that brought him to
international attention, “Nobody’s Business”
(1996).

Yesterday, New York-based Berliner held a four-hour workshop and
screened his latest film.

Doctorate film student and experimental documentary filmmaker
Rita Gonzalez believes that this is a rare opportunity for UCLA
filmmakers, both of the traditional political documentary school
and the rising experimental/video artist type of filmmaker. She
believes that talking with the filmmaker enhances film-watching
experiences.

“Berliner’s disposition is the eccentric way of
filtering history, culture and politics through a personal
dimension. Ample understanding is contingent on the filmmakers
personal, special knowledge.”

“Nobody’s Business,” portrays the emotional
and stylistic battle of wills (including cuts to boxing scenes)
between Berliner and his cranky, lonely and reclusive father,
Oscar. It is not a documentary, but a personal story of family love
and conflict, told with blends of the aural and visual. The film is
made more poignant by the fact that Oscar has recently died and the
film is now presented as a eulogy to his life.

Berliner obsessively attempts to get “closer to the human
truth.” He wants to capture and reclaim his own family
history but at every turn the reluctant Oscar tries to subvert this
“silly” aim. Oscar is adamant about his own
insignificance.

“I am just an ordinary guy who’s lived an ordinary
life,” he said. “That’s nothing to make a picture
about.”

But watching Oscar in the film shows that this he is not
ordinary. Oscar lives on his own with no human contact apart from
his son and daughter, which sets him apart.

“It’s not that I choose to be alone, I have to be
alone! I can’t cope,” Oscar said.

Berliner believes this work is not going to be a mundane family
history.

“In many ways the film has been profoundly liberating for
me,” said Berliner for “Film Independent” in
1997. This was serious emotional territory for both Oscar and
Berliner.

“At least I can try to understand him better,”
Berliner said. “I don’t think you can partake in this
kind of experience and walk away untouched.”

Even when the credits roll, Oscar chastises Alan for not being
an accountant.

“A guaranteed flop,” says Oscar of his own
son’s work.

However, it wasn’t. Premiering to standing ovations at the
New York Film Festival of 1996, “Nobody’s
Business” has won numerous film festival prizes including the
prestigious Caligari film festival prize at the Berlin Film
Festival. It has been sold to television networks the world over.
Here in America, it launched the 1997 Point of View series on PBS,
and picked up an Emmy for Best Television Documentary.

His latest film, “The Sweetest Sound” (2001),
screened yesterday, takes a quirky subject and turns it into a
self-examining ordeal. Scrutinizing identity and the power of name,
he draws together a group of people who share his name. This
includes the Belgian filmmaker he is often mistaken for, Alian
Berliner. “The Sweetest Sound” has also been sold to
PBS and will screen later in the year.

UCLA documentary film professor and filmmaker, Marina
Goldovskaya, believes that Berliner’s films are emotional and
nostalgic pieces.

“The way he analyzed his father and own life ““ to
examine, explore roots through poetry ““ is the way to the
truth of life. It is therapeutic, good for the soul.”

Now a friend of Berliner brought together by their shared desire
to make documentary films, Goldovskaya is very proud to be able to
invite him to UCLA.

Since interest in documentary film seems to be increasing at
UCLA, the workshop will encourage and give strength to
students.

“”˜Nobody’s Business’ is a piece of great
filmmaking technically and aesthetically. It is tight and rich in
imagery,” Goldovskaya said.

Berliner has made over 10 television length documentaries,
including “The Family Album” and the quirky and
Emmy-nominated “Intimate Strange.” Beginning his career
as an ABC editor, he has not limited his work output just to
documentaries. Berliner has exhibited art and his dabbling in video
sculpture and experimental shorts.