Study On The Pluralism Of Oscar-Winning Documentaries

Documentaries are regarded as the context of human survival; therefore most countries of the world highly emphasize the cultural inheritance of documentaries. From1942, since Canadian documentary "Churchill’s Island" was awarded the best documentary by the Academy,145excellent documentaries from different countries have been awarded till2013, most of which were produced by U.S. The majority of developed countries were awarded the best documentaries such as U.S.(119films, including10joint-produced films), Britain (11films), Germany (2films), France (9films), Holland (3films), Canada (5films), and etc. Some developing countries like China, India, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Mixco and etc. were also awarded one best documentary respectively.According to the awarding rules over the years, the Academy has not conducted many restrictions in the aspects of documentary styles, contents, nationalities, even the expressive forms. This kind of relatively open rules is in favor of cultivating all-embracing characteristic of Oscar-winning documentaries, which guarantees the pluralism and diversity of documentaries.Oscar official website has already published the selection rules of the86th event in2014, in which the definition of documentary keeps the same as before, that is,"An eligible documentary film is defined as a theatrically released nonfiction motion picture dealing creatively with cultural, artistic, historical, social, scientific, economic or other subjects. It may be photographed in actual occurrence, or may employ partial reenactment, stock footage, stills, animation, stop-motion or other techniques, as long as the emphasis is on fact and not on fiction." In the rule, we find that the basic requirement of documentaries is "non-fiction", but few rules are regulated to restrict the detailed producing methods. Accordingly, in this thesis a reasonable definition can be given in the premise of "non-fiction":Documentary is the representation and non-fiction record of objective subjects.Documentaries can be the historical records of important events. Though not all the documentaries are the mirror images, Oscar-winning documentaries are closely connected with contemporary society. No matter what they are about, mirroring records of wars, unstable society and life or expanding horizons of post-911age, the pluralism of society contributes to pluralism of documentaries. Oscar offers great opportunities for people to present many excellent documentaries, and it also offers great opportunities to a lot of documentary directors with pluralism, which can be reflected by the fact that more than100directors are awarded regardless of their race, gender, and cultural background.Oscar award is in nature a kind of commercialized film promotion, but since the first documentary awarding, many Oscar-winning documentaries have been the essence of contemporary history as well as the prospect of future.72-year-old of Oscar-winning documentaries is actually the album of72years of experience, which has witnessed the profound change of discourse power and horizon and the prominence of its commercial value.Because of the fact-recording characteristic,145Oscar-winning documentaries depict a relatively complete social panorama of U.S. and even of the whole world. No matter which issue it is, the issues of war, environment, medical care, homosexuality or poverty are generally put into the horizon of selecting Oscar-winning documentaries. This diversity of documentary topics is an important guarantee of pluralism.The pluralism of Oscar-winning documentaries is reflected not only by contents and topics, but also by narration styles. The studying on documentary narration styles also shows its pluralism tendency, diverting from Grierson style with commentary full of inculcation and instruction, objective observation and record mainly presented by direct fihns to today’s new documentaries with obvious characteristic of story-telling, which shows the diversion to narration of story-tell. The internationalized and commercialized documentaries in fact do not break the Oscar selection rules; meanwhile they also conform to American traditional notions and mainstream culture, which becomes an important aspect of documentary pluralism. If the direct form documentaries are kinds of "zero degree" record, new documentaries will involve more subjective factors.Oscar was originally a national award of U. S. which was not necessary related to China, but in the situation of globalization and multi-source, especially in the long-persistent opening principle of documentary awarding, Oscar award has been connected with and influencing China to certain extent.Since the first Oscar awarding of documentaries, the situation of pluralism has consciously and subconsciously formed. In this situation, China and its high international position and the diversity of its subject matters should belong to one part of Oscar awarding pluralism.Though the Oscar-winning documentaries,"The Blood of Yingzhou District" and "From Mao to Mozart:Isaac Stern in China", are directly connected with China, their producing angles are partial and limited, from which China seems to be observed from "windows". Due to the lack of mutual and thorough communication, not only may foreign audience get the unreal impression of China by watching it from "windows", but also Chinese audience may get the partial understanding of Oscar-winning documentaries, that is, Chinese audience may also subconsciously interpret the documentaries from Chinese perspective in which they may take it for granted that Oscar-winning documentaries will destroy Chinese image, hence they will watch the biased documentaries with biased view. Consequently, there exists dual prejudice.The real record and representation of nature and society by documentaries compensate the disadvantages of over-commercialization and amusement of Oscar, which is a kind of its redemption. Under pluralism background, Chinese documentaries should be focused on the diversified topic selection of Oscar by making full use of their own specific contents so as to enhance Oscar completeness and pluralism.In the72-year-history of Oscar-winning documentaries, the situation of pluralism has been formed, but there is still room for further development. The join of Chinese documentaries with Chinese elements into Oscar will become its important choice for redemption, and it is also a crucial supplement to accomplish Oscar pluralism.