Doc Mode Activity 3: Poetic & Performative

For this project, I chose to work in a combination of the poetic and performative documentary modes as described by Bill Nichols. I had already explored expository, participatory, and reflexive approaches in earlier assignments, so I wanted this film to move firmly into a space driven by mood, rhythm, and emotional interpretation. My goal was to use archival footage from Sir Alec Guinness’s body of work in a way that could recontextualize his performances and generate new emotional effects rather than present information about him. This interest in transforming archival material through arrangement and formal design aligns with Nichols’s description of the poetic mode, which emphasizes expressive organization and the creation of impressions through image and sound.

The film uses clips from several of Guinness’s roles, including roles in Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, The Man in the White Suit, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, and Cromwell. To create a unified visual structure, I motion tracked Guinness’s head in every shot so that it stays centered in the frame even when the original cinematography moves. This isolates him as the constant element while the world around him changes. Nichols describes poetic documentary work as relying on formal patterns and visual relationships rather than linear storytelling. The centered tracking created exactly that kind of formal pattern, since Guinness becomes a visual anchor while time, setting, and genre shift around him.

I arranged the footage chronologically so that the viewer experiences the gradual progression of Guinness aging on screen. In the earliest clips, especially from Oliver Twist, I included relatively more shots to create the emotion of longevity and joy in Guinness’s artistry. The impression that his early career feels bright or full of possibility comes from the rhythmic flow of images rather than any explicit statement. Nichols notes that poetic documentaries aim to evoke moods and states of mind, and the editing in this section is meant to create an emotional sense of youth and potential without describing it.

The performative dimension enters through the music and through the gradual introduction of Star Wars imagery. I used sentimental melodic music throughout to highlight the sincerity and emotional depth that Guinness brought to his characters. In Nichols’s description of the performative mode, the filmmaker’s subjective response becomes part of the meaning of the work. The creeping appearance of the moment where Obi-Wan gives Luke his father’s lightsaber is an expression of my own emotional reading of Guinness’s legacy and also reflects Guinness’s feelings towards his role in Star Wars. This scene starts to fade in during Lawrence of Arabia and uses a lighten blending mode so that it slips in and out of the frame. It does not announce itself through explanation. Instead, it quietly intrudes until it becomes more present, which mirrors the cultural sense that Star Wars eventually overshadowed Guinness’s earlier dramatic career. My goal was not to argue about his feelings but to convey the emotional pressure of that legacy through gradual visual intrusion.

Because the Star Wars material is not explained or analyzed, it functions as a performative gesture layered on top of the poetic foundation. The film does not make claims about Guinness’s career in a factual sense. Instead, it invites the viewer to feel a progression from youth to maturity and then to cultural overshadowing. Because I integrated the scene from Star Wars using a lighten blend mode, it also reads as poetic texture more than expository evidence. The result is a piece shaped by expressive form, archival reconfiguration, emotional subjectivity, and rhythmic design.