VOICES FROM THE KILLING FIELDS

Genre Analysis

Type of Documentary

Mixed Narration: sometimes in front of the camera, sometimes off-screen voice (voice of God).

Fly on the wall: unfolding a real event that happened.

Self-reflective: speaks directly to documentary producer, acknowledges camera.

Interviews & observation, interviewees.

Themes

1970 killings in Cambodia – ‘the killing fields’

Ethnic minorities Deadly secrets Journalism A lost regained Massacre Gore Embarrassment, shame, regret Journalism

Investigation Trust & time

Narrative Structure

Sense of movement: we see from the early non-productive stages to progressing and then to all secrets being revealed within the programme.

Non-linear: told in order of events, from early development, throughout development (but does contain flashbacks)

Single strand: one strong plot throughout documentary; one question - why were thousands of people killed?

Camerawork Lots of establishing & panning shots – reveals the location, time

and types of people, main surroundings e.g the ‘ditches’ and explosions.

Low angle of interviewees – past soldiers/killers, gives them a sense of the power/threat they had, but you see

the sorrow and regret in their eyes (using extreme closes-ups and zooming) as they tell their stories.

Eye line – rule of thirds during interviews, uses the top third.

Fast cuts are used of busy lives and countryside during day and night shots.

Extreme close-ups of killers eyes – makes a sense of sinister but scared feelings (mixed emotions) also it is as of we are looking into what he is

seen while he talks about the killings and what he did.

Handheld filming during man showing how he killed people by slitting throats ; shaky camera movements intensifies the scene into a panic mode & what it must have been like at the time.

Handheld filming whilst walking through the killing fields and then uses a slow pan across the landscape of the fields with

cut-away’s of the interviewee telling some happenings.

Mise-en-scene Investigation into Cambodia’s cultural secrets – showing culture of film

captures of farms, typical Cambodian lifestyle – showing audience the type of people that live there peacefully.

Journalist’s house and family – shows what type of person he is; revealing he is a family man and his family supports his work style.

Lighting – is mostly natural lighting (daylight) as it is all filmed outside/ on the move.

On one interview the lighting is darkened and the interviewees face is blacked out for identity safety; as he admits that she is scared

she will be ‘put in chains’ if she reveals any secrets of her past.

People are interviews in homes , making it more genuine and anchors the meaning of that person’s purpose in the documentary. Showing their family life/state/how they have coped for us to see visually.

Sound

A music bed is used playing culturised music of a banjo/guitar and flutes, slow and suits the mood throughout.

Incidental music: changes through the killing fields from soft to more eerie as camera focuses on long grass blowing in the wind in the dark – creating a sinister feeling that thousands of people suffered and their bodies are buried somewhere underneath the grass.

Non digetic/digetic sounds: natural sounds of village life throughout interviews i.e chickens clucking, people talking.

Editing

Speaking over cutaways, interviewees and narrator – used to emphasise the documentary.

Elliptical editing: darkening an interviewee’s face for identity.

Cross cutting: used from the filming of the documentary to actual footage that has been edited in.

Archive FootageFootage of… Leaders ‘Pol-Pott’ talking about the launch of the regime. Soldiers in uniform on duty (very old in black & white). War scenes, explosions from that region and the regime. The gate keeper editing/looking over recorded interviews. The revealing of the truth – why the killings happened. Khare Rouge and the Vietnamese meeting. Still images of older journalists back in their day.

Graphics

English subtitles over Cambodian accent/language. Title of programme at the start & end of each commercial

break. Credits at the end. No name plates on screen as names are revealed through

subtitles. Text in white at the beginning tells a short introduction to

the programme.

Question is re-visited at the end:

Why did it take Nuon Chea (younger brother) three years for him to tell the

journalist the truth? Top khmer reveals the truth about the killings.