WEBVTT
00:00:30.180 --> 00:00:33.083
[music]
00:00:41.024 --> 00:00:42.793
-Sometimes when I\'m making a film,
00:00:43.226 --> 00:00:44.961
I have this feeling of deception,
00:00:45.295 --> 00:00:50.100
like I\'m deceiving my subjects,
the viewer, and myself.
00:00:51.334 --> 00:00:53.670
[music]
00:02:10.046 --> 00:02:12.582
-The system first tried
to break Peter Watkins
00:02:12.716 --> 00:02:15.085
with the release of his second film in 1965.
00:02:16.553 --> 00:02:20.590
I saw The War Game as a film student
and I had to cover my eyes.
00:02:21.658 --> 00:02:25.529
Watkins filmed a nuclear attack
near London like it was a news report.
00:02:26.396 --> 00:02:30.100
Concerned about its subversion
of Britain\'s nuclear arms policy,
00:02:30.300 --> 00:02:33.637
the BBC and the British government
banned The War Game,
00:02:33.937 --> 00:02:36.106
calling it an artistic failure.
00:02:37.874 --> 00:02:40.577
The film won an Oscar
for Best Documentary.
00:02:55.325 --> 00:02:58.862
-It\'s not only the subject itself,
it\'s the immediate linking,
00:02:58.962 --> 00:03:04.034
at least, for me, between the subject
and present crisis in society.
00:03:05.368 --> 00:03:09.739
Is it possible for us
to become far more non-exploitative
00:03:09.906 --> 00:03:13.810
and collective and less violent
in our behavior toward each other,
00:03:14.010 --> 00:03:18.181
and much more sharing,
both in terms of human beings
00:03:18.315 --> 00:03:22.419
but also in terms of the resources
of the planet, and so on?
00:03:22.619 --> 00:03:24.721
This is the big unresolved crisis
00:03:24.754 --> 00:03:28.692
with which we enter
the so-called new millennium.
00:03:29.226 --> 00:03:33.296
I think it\'s the touching
between those things and the Commune,
00:03:33.496 --> 00:03:35.732
which was also a very unresolved event
00:03:35.966 --> 00:03:38.535
because the Commune
never got a chance
00:03:38.635 --> 00:03:41.838
to effectively prove itself
one way or the other.
00:03:42.372 --> 00:03:44.140
The whole process of reform,
00:03:44.307 --> 00:03:48.044
setting about a whole series
of social and political reforms,
00:03:48.211 --> 00:03:52.582
it was all throttled,
stamped out, just after birth.
00:03:52.682 --> 00:03:55.885
[French language]
00:04:01.825 --> 00:04:04.261
-I\'ve always admired the authenticity
00:04:04.461 --> 00:04:05.996
and intensity of Watkins\' work.
00:04:06.930 --> 00:04:08.331
As I watch his process,
00:04:08.498 --> 00:04:11.868
I\'m compelled to question
my own practice as a filmmaker.
00:04:50.607 --> 00:04:52.976
-Peter Watkins is making his 12th film.
00:04:53.677 --> 00:04:56.279
It\'s about the Paris Commune of 1871,
00:04:56.880 --> 00:04:59.449
a spontaneous uprising
that became a symbol
00:04:59.549 --> 00:05:03.086
of revolutionary hope
for progressive groups all over the world.
00:05:03.320 --> 00:05:05.655
[music]
00:05:20.804 --> 00:05:24.274
-Watkins is working
with over 200 non-professional actors,
00:05:24.507 --> 00:05:27.844
inviting them to become
creative participants in television,
00:05:28.211 --> 00:05:29.879
rather than simply viewers.
00:05:30.046 --> 00:05:32.682
Over three months,
they blow on the ashes
00:05:32.782 --> 00:05:35.151
of their ancestors
to illuminate the present.
00:05:36.319 --> 00:05:39.622
Their collective experiment
will become a six-hour film.
00:06:40.083 --> 00:06:42.886
-Over his embattled career,
I\'ve wondered where Peter Watkins
00:06:42.986 --> 00:06:45.755
found the strength to stand up
so firmly for his vision.
00:06:51.494 --> 00:06:54.030
On the other hand,
does he need to be so hard-headed?
00:06:54.798 --> 00:06:58.168
Is the system really as oppressive
and corrupt as he describes?
00:07:00.370 --> 00:07:03.139
Is he partly responsible
for his own exclusion?
00:07:13.917 --> 00:07:17.220
Reduced to abject misery,
the people of Paris rose up
00:07:17.287 --> 00:07:19.923
against the Republican government
set up in Versailles.
00:07:20.690 --> 00:07:22.859
For two months,
the Communards struggled
00:07:23.026 --> 00:07:25.328
to create a more egalitarian society.
00:07:25.628 --> 00:07:28.131
[music]
00:12:27.363 --> 00:12:28.965
[music]
00:12:41.677 --> 00:12:44.080
-Is there any compromise I would refuse
00:12:44.614 --> 00:12:46.682
if it meant losing the privilege
of making a film?
00:12:52.155 --> 00:12:53.723
Is the only revolution I\'m prepared
00:12:53.823 --> 00:12:57.460
to support one where no one
is upset or no one is against me?
00:13:06.135 --> 00:13:09.806
MIPTV, the largest television market
in the world,
00:13:09.906 --> 00:13:11.407
is held twice a year in Cannes
00:13:11.507 --> 00:13:13.209
on the Côtes d\'Azur in Southern France.
00:13:15.411 --> 00:13:16.946
Here the decisions are made
00:13:17.046 --> 00:13:18.948
about what documentaries
will be produced,
00:13:19.081 --> 00:13:21.284
distributed,
and broadcast around the world.
00:13:23.119 --> 00:13:27.690
MIPTV is like the Versailles
of television and my virtual boss.
00:13:30.293 --> 00:13:31.661
- I have the best job in the world.
00:13:31.727 --> 00:13:33.663
I get to do work with talented people
00:13:33.763 --> 00:13:36.666
to present great stories, real stories.
00:13:36.866 --> 00:13:38.835
- Suddenly information was okay.
00:13:39.235 --> 00:13:42.138
People started to understand
that you can be entertained
00:13:42.238 --> 00:13:43.706
and give information at the same time.
00:13:56.319 --> 00:13:58.187
-In some places,
they feel like they know enough
00:13:58.287 --> 00:13:59.021
about their own history.
00:13:59.088 --> 00:14:00.990
They really want to know
about other people\'s history.
00:14:01.123 --> 00:14:05.528
A large part of it
is really international subjects,
00:14:05.661 --> 00:14:09.932
that just about everybody everywhere
wants to know about
00:14:10.066 --> 00:14:10.833
or interested in.
00:14:11.667 --> 00:14:13.903
-12 alternating lines of rhyme
00:14:14.003 --> 00:14:16.873
and I am the contaminator funneled
by a rhyming couplet at the end.
00:14:17.006 --> 00:14:19.242
You can choose to regard that as fascism
00:14:19.342 --> 00:14:21.644
or the relations
should between form and content.
00:14:22.445 --> 00:14:26.349
I\'m not frightened
by a 55-minute hour.
00:14:27.216 --> 00:14:31.787
I\'m prepared to work
within the grammar of the people,
00:14:31.888 --> 00:14:33.155
not the grammar of the commercial,
00:14:33.289 --> 00:14:36.859
necessarily, the company,
the grammar of the people.
00:15:00.383 --> 00:15:02.618
-We\'ve tried very hard to arrive
00:15:02.685 --> 00:15:05.321
at what we like to call
a universal clock.
00:15:07.590 --> 00:15:14.196
The universal clock
is 47.5 minutes for a standard hour,
00:15:14.363 --> 00:15:19.802
commercial hour, and 23.5 minutes
for a commercial half-hour.
00:15:20.303 --> 00:15:25.841
In the move towards launching
new channels around the world,
00:15:25.975 --> 00:15:29.178
wherever they might be,
it\'s really, really useful
00:15:29.278 --> 00:15:31.414
to be able to take a show off
the shelf and know
00:15:31.614 --> 00:15:33.816
that you\'re not going to have
to do any further work to it.
00:15:34.016 --> 00:15:36.852
It already conforms
to the clock cut that you need,
00:15:37.019 --> 00:15:40.356
and you can schedule them
into the system in such a way
00:15:40.456 --> 00:15:45.328
that all the people
who really count in network operations
00:15:45.494 --> 00:15:48.531
and in ad sales
and elsewhere don\'t have to fret
00:15:48.664 --> 00:15:52.568
about whether it\'s 15 seconds
of drift here or a minute of drift there.
00:15:52.868 --> 00:15:54.403
If they\'ve got something they can play with,
00:15:54.503 --> 00:15:56.472
slot straight into the system and transmit.
00:15:58.908 --> 00:16:00.609
-[French language]
00:16:00.776 --> 00:16:02.979
-Now, of course,
sometimes there are producers who say,
00:16:03.079 --> 00:16:04.513
\"Oh, well,
I can\'t possibly work like this.\"
00:16:04.680 --> 00:16:10.286
Well, I play tennis on the same tennis court
as Andre Agassi does,
00:16:10.419 --> 00:16:12.054
at least the same size tennis court.
00:16:12.154 --> 00:16:15.324
I\'m hopeless, he\'s brilliant,
but it\'s the same size court.
00:16:15.992 --> 00:16:17.860
Now we apply the same logic,
00:16:17.994 --> 00:16:20.396
if you like, to this universal clock.
00:16:20.563 --> 00:16:21.964
There are people who can make
00:16:22.064 --> 00:16:25.034
a universal clock sing at 47 minutes 30,
00:16:25.201 --> 00:16:27.503
and there are people who can\'t.
00:16:27.670 --> 00:16:29.638
[music]
00:16:29.705 --> 00:16:30.573
-It\'s perfectly possible
00:16:30.706 --> 00:16:33.242
to do the 100 years war in 5 minutes,
00:16:33.376 --> 00:16:35.811
in 10 minutes, in 20 minutes,
in 47 minutes.
00:16:35.978 --> 00:16:38.481
It would also so be possible to do it
00:16:38.614 --> 00:16:40.149
in a three-hour series no doubt.
00:16:40.549 --> 00:16:42.818
The depth of information value
00:16:43.019 --> 00:16:44.754
is actually not to do
with the duration,
00:16:44.954 --> 00:16:48.290
it\'s to do with the anticipated
expectation of the audience.
00:17:23.726 --> 00:17:29.031
-This shape here
is what I call the mono form,
00:17:29.932 --> 00:17:35.171
which is simply a name I give
to the basic structure
00:17:35.371 --> 00:17:38.007
of what we see on television.
00:17:38.140 --> 00:17:39.341
In a majority sense,
00:17:39.408 --> 00:17:42.078
most of what we see
in the commercial cinema today
00:17:42.211 --> 00:17:45.081
because you don\'t just see a subject,
00:17:45.181 --> 00:17:51.420
you see something
being communicated so-called
00:17:51.654 --> 00:17:55.724
to the audience
via a particular system of communication.
00:17:57.259 --> 00:18:00.529
Of course, it\'s a series of rapidly editing pictures
00:18:01.063 --> 00:18:06.635
just constantly displacing us
from one thing to another,
00:18:06.802 --> 00:18:09.105
from one subject, one visual image
00:18:09.271 --> 00:18:12.842
with all its associated metaphorical,
00:18:12.908 --> 00:18:16.412
symbolic, personal meanings,
different weight
00:18:16.479 --> 00:18:17.680
of information on the screen,
00:18:17.780 --> 00:18:20.049
different masks,
different shape, different movement,
00:18:20.182 --> 00:18:22.384
and we\'re asked to deal
with that usually in five,
00:18:22.485 --> 00:18:25.354
six or seven seconds,
which is the average cutting rate,
00:18:25.454 --> 00:18:27.523
and you change the next, change the next,
00:18:27.623 --> 00:18:28.624
and so on, and so on, and so on.
00:18:28.724 --> 00:18:31.460
In this barrage of visual information,
00:18:31.594 --> 00:18:34.897
which is, of course, being accompanied
by an audio barrage,
00:18:35.865 --> 00:18:41.637
all being thrust at the audience
in a one-way monolinear push
00:18:42.738 --> 00:18:47.243
from beginning to end where,
in fact, of course,
00:18:47.309 --> 00:18:52.248
what the audience is to feel
or decide at the endpoint here
00:18:52.615 --> 00:18:54.817
is already determined
at the beginning point
00:18:55.651 --> 00:18:57.186
on all sorts of levels.
00:25:31.013 --> 00:25:32.814
[music]
00:25:43.458 --> 00:25:45.561
-The Communards stormed
the gates of paradise
00:25:45.694 --> 00:25:47.195
when they marched on Versailles
00:25:47.296 --> 00:25:50.766
during the [?]
but it was already too late.
00:25:51.500 --> 00:25:53.936
Disorganized,
they suffered a terrible defeat.
00:25:55.404 --> 00:25:56.805
For the first time on the set,
00:25:56.972 --> 00:26:00.142
the participants have to think
about the meaning of commitment.
00:26:00.876 --> 00:26:03.545
[music]
00:26:33.542 --> 00:26:35.844
-Today, our subconscious is colonized
00:26:35.911 --> 00:26:37.613
by the beat of the universal clock.
00:26:38.380 --> 00:26:41.950
Filmmakers mutate into suppliers
of products and brands.
00:26:43.352 --> 00:26:46.521
Rather than revealing reality,
the documentary is covering it over.
00:26:47.556 --> 00:26:49.625
Like others, I want the documentary to be able
00:26:49.691 --> 00:26:50.692
to take back time,
00:26:51.059 --> 00:26:53.428
time to be committed,
to respect the process,
00:26:53.562 --> 00:26:56.298
to treat a subject seriously, to experiment,
00:26:56.765 --> 00:26:58.700
and time for the viewer to think.
00:34:03.091 --> 00:34:05.960
[music]
00:34:06.861 --> 00:34:09.931
-Your efforts to fit into
the system might have a dreadful cost.
00:34:10.632 --> 00:34:12.300
Forced to torment yourself
00:34:12.367 --> 00:34:14.769
with how much creativity
could be fitted on the head of a pin,
00:34:14.903 --> 00:34:18.039
your vision narrows,
your imagination seeps away,
00:34:18.306 --> 00:34:21.543
your capacity to think
outside the box is diminished.
00:34:22.410 --> 00:34:24.979
Insidiously, self-censorship takes over,
00:34:25.146 --> 00:34:27.949
and your spirit of resistance evaporates.
00:34:28.550 --> 00:34:30.652
[music]
00:34:55.977 --> 00:34:57.612
-We have a thing called
Watch With the World,
00:34:57.779 --> 00:35:01.116
and it\'s an initiative
where every Discovery channel
00:35:02.784 --> 00:35:04.652
in the entire world
we\'ll show it the same day
00:35:04.752 --> 00:35:06.788
and the same time in its country.
00:35:06.988 --> 00:35:11.192
It\'s been a terrific gathering that people
00:35:11.326 --> 00:35:15.296
are seeing the same show in their language
at the same time, same day.
00:35:15.363 --> 00:35:17.832
We\'re going to do one coming up
at the end of the year
00:35:17.932 --> 00:35:19.601
on the International Space Station.
00:35:19.734 --> 00:35:23.304
We really look at it as something
that a company like Discovery
00:35:23.471 --> 00:35:25.006
is uniquely placed to do.
00:35:25.840 --> 00:35:27.542
-What\'s being sold in television?
00:35:28.743 --> 00:35:31.846
What\'s being sold,
if you follow the money, is you.
00:35:33.414 --> 00:35:37.485
You create a program
in commercial television essentially
00:35:37.552 --> 00:35:41.689
to attract a specific demographic
of consumers, friends,
00:35:41.789 --> 00:35:43.992
you\'re supposed to women 18 to 35.
00:35:44.092 --> 00:35:49.297
Then these women 18 to 35
are sold literally by the thousand.
00:35:50.064 --> 00:35:52.200
They\'re probably worth,
depending on the market,
00:35:52.300 --> 00:35:58.573
$175 per thousand to an advertiser
who then buys the women
00:35:58.706 --> 00:36:01.809
by the thousand, by the pound almost.
00:36:04.112 --> 00:36:05.380
- Thanks for your help.
00:36:05.513 --> 00:36:06.080
Thanks a lot.
00:36:06.214 --> 00:36:08.850
-We\'re open to do that currently.
00:36:09.050 --> 00:36:11.953
- I think with Cleopatra, the estimate was that
00:36:12.053 --> 00:36:15.223
that night over 30 million people
around the world saw it.
00:36:15.423 --> 00:36:18.059
That number will be dwarfed
by Raising the Mammoth.
00:36:18.159 --> 00:36:20.094
We know that over 30 million people
00:36:20.195 --> 00:36:22.263
in the United States watched it that night.
00:36:22.297 --> 00:36:27.969
We\'re estimating that around
the world over 50 million people
00:36:28.102 --> 00:36:31.539
would\'ve seen Raising the Mammoth
all in the same night.
00:36:31.606 --> 00:36:34.042
That\'s a pretty big impact we think.
00:36:37.946 --> 00:36:40.682
-There are filmmakers
who quite justifiably say,
00:36:40.815 --> 00:36:44.319
\"This is my work,
and I want it to stay the way it is.\"
00:36:45.053 --> 00:36:49.424
That\'s their right,
and we respect that.
00:36:50.858 --> 00:36:52.560
Those are the films we don\'t buy,
00:36:52.694 --> 00:36:54.329
and those are the films we don\'t transmit.
00:36:57.732 --> 00:37:02.103
-The whole purpose
of 20th-century mass audiovisual media
00:37:03.171 --> 00:37:07.709
is that it is not predicated
on incorporating the ideas,
00:37:07.809 --> 00:37:12.814
feelings, experiences,
subjectivity, memory, knowledge,
00:37:12.914 --> 00:37:19.621
wisdom of the audience,
or the viewers, and engulfing them
00:37:19.687 --> 00:37:21.889
and taking them
into the process and sharing.
00:37:21.990 --> 00:37:27.528
Indeed it\'s in 20th-century
mass audiovisual media
00:37:27.662 --> 00:37:29.330
is designed to withhold those,
00:37:29.464 --> 00:37:33.735
to push those away,
and to instead engulf the people
00:37:33.801 --> 00:37:38.640
with this fabricated fragmented
arbitrary process
00:37:40.174 --> 00:37:43.144
where the person\'s participation
is held out
00:37:43.511 --> 00:37:45.613
and that\'s why everything
is moving very fast
00:37:45.813 --> 00:37:49.651
to hold back
any opportunity for the person
00:37:49.751 --> 00:37:52.587
to have time to come in
and enter the material
00:37:52.754 --> 00:37:55.390
and challenge it
or negotiate with it or anything.
00:37:55.857 --> 00:37:57.358
[music]
00:38:00.895 --> 00:38:02.830
-Our eyes don\'t really belong to us.
00:38:03.331 --> 00:38:06.634
They\'re harvested
by a machine that we\'re powerless to resist.
00:38:07.568 --> 00:38:09.437
Blood is not in the streets anymore.
00:38:10.271 --> 00:38:12.073
It\'s our eyes that are bleeding.
00:38:12.640 --> 00:38:15.209
[music]
00:45:02.316 --> 00:45:04.318
[applause]
00:45:19.567 --> 00:45:21.902
-Peter Watkins\' convictions were forged
00:45:22.036 --> 00:45:24.138
in a firestorm of opposition to his work.
00:45:24.939 --> 00:45:27.875
He found a truth
and named an oppression.
00:45:28.075 --> 00:45:31.212
The no he stands for
is entirely positive.
00:45:32.980 --> 00:45:35.116
[music]
00:45:38.285 --> 00:45:40.321
-The moment may come
when you have to say no,
00:45:40.554 --> 00:45:43.357
absolutely no,
for your own integrity.
00:45:44.125 --> 00:45:47.695
If you lose sight of this idea
or let it fall into disuse,
00:45:47.795 --> 00:45:48.963
there will be nothing left,
00:45:49.130 --> 00:45:51.932
nothing left to say,
nothing left to share.
00:45:52.399 --> 00:45:55.736
[music]
00:46:40.781 --> 00:46:43.717
-In here lies the repression in the cinema
00:46:43.751 --> 00:46:44.819
and television today,
00:46:44.985 --> 00:46:46.187
the complete crushing
00:46:46.253 --> 00:46:49.256
of all alternative projects, everything.
00:46:49.590 --> 00:46:52.059
The fragmentation for the audience,
00:46:52.226 --> 00:46:55.729
the division of people,
the lack of collective thinking,
00:46:55.896 --> 00:46:59.733
the lack of care,
genuine care about the planet,
00:47:00.334 --> 00:47:04.471
the full throttles thrust
to the consumer society,
00:47:04.638 --> 00:47:07.641
all this, this is like
an engine pushing all this stuff.
00:47:17.585 --> 00:47:18.953
[music]
00:47:19.753 --> 00:47:22.790
-The final assault against
the Commune began on May 21st.
00:47:22.957 --> 00:47:26.193
The French army massacred
30,000 men, women,
00:47:26.293 --> 00:47:28.596
and children during the bloody week.
00:47:36.370 --> 00:47:38.472
-Perhaps each of us is somewhere on the road
00:47:38.572 --> 00:47:41.175
to consciousness
about what oppresses us
00:47:41.609 --> 00:47:44.979
and what freedom means
in the most immediate intimate sense.
00:47:56.190 --> 00:47:56.590
-Okay.
00:47:57.324 --> 00:47:57.725
Okay.
00:47:59.126 --> 00:47:59.727
-Okay.
00:48:01.662 --> 00:48:03.597
-The reflection at the heart of La Commune
00:48:03.731 --> 00:48:05.399
and the challenge of the barricades
00:48:05.599 --> 00:48:06.967
is about commitment.
00:48:20.147 --> 00:48:20.848
-Okay.
00:48:22.716 --> 00:48:24.785
-The revolution is a state of mind.
00:48:25.552 --> 00:48:27.354
Keeping the spirit alive
00:48:27.521 --> 00:48:29.490
is all the freedom we have left.
00:48:33.027 --> 00:48:35.362
[drumming]
00:48:44.772 --> 00:48:47.841
[drumming]
00:48:56.417 --> 00:49:00.154
[music]
00:50:07.688 --> 00:50:10.124
[applause]
00:50:23.437 --> 00:50:24.872
[music]
00:50:44.391 --> 00:50:46.760
[French language]
00:51:59.600 --> 00:52:02.035
[applause]
