An Alternative Documentary Film: Three Tales

Steve Reich is a contemporary composer who is best known for his contribution to minimalist music. As well as being one of the pioneers of modern music, he also teamed up with Beryl Korot in 1998 to create a documentary-digital video opera, in the form of an installation and performance. Video installation became a very popular art medium since 1970s, but Three Tales is one of the rare examples of this form of art in documentary form.

Three Tales is made of three parts; each of these parts recalls an historical event that occurred in the past. The first part, Hindenburg, is a collection of historical footage, photographs and interviews about the German zeppelin that was built during 1930s and its explosion in New Jersey after crossing the Atlantic. The second part “Bikini” is another collection of archived material in footage, photography form on U.S. atom bomb tests conducted at Bikini Island that also shows footage on islanders who had to leave the island. Final part “Dolly” is about the cloned sheep in Scotland during late 1990s and shows footage on human body, machines and D.N.A. related technological images. It is possible to see interviews done with scientists like Richard Dawkins or James Watson throughout the work. Three Tales not only is a video installation, but as mentioned previously, it is also a performance where 16 musicians are on the stage providing live music during the screening of the documentary.

Reich and Korot have managed to contribute to film studies a new approach with this project; one one hand, it is true that it seems as an experimental project, but on the other, it nevertheless has almost all the necessary characteristics of a film: the exception is that it has more, in the sense that its audience is able to hear the soundtrack performed live. I’d strongly recommend Three Tales to anyone interested in documentary film and contemporary music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caJ-MoESHyI&feature=related