Documentary Come-Backs

Mikołaj Jazdon

Abstract

Jazdon writes that at the end of the century documentary filmmakers more frequently and willingly return to the places and heroes they filmed in the past. The heroes of the documentaries come back to the screen. What were their lives like? What did they accomplish? How were they ageing? What has by now been possible only in feature films now comes within the reach of the cameras of documentary filmmakers. Close-ups of the faces of the people filmed 30 years ago are juxtaposed with contemporary close-ups of the same faces. Passage of time visible on the faces was not put on by make-up people, while the stories told in the films were not born in script writers’ minds. The scripts of documentary sequels have been written by life. The documentary filmmakers of the end of the century return to the heroes of their old films, trace the lives of people from old photographs, visit the places immortalized in classic documentaries and return to rolls of films of unfinished movies. The pictures of the past are put together, and this juxtaposition is the theme of documentaries.