The essayistic Mode

The essayistic mode described by Fox is one that test its content, giving the different examples in the films that we watched this mode would be open to different perspectives or sometimes no perspective at all.  Also this mode takes all the previous modes and put it into this new ‘greater truth’ that the audience will conclude.

With the documentary Something to do with the Wall,   I could recognize just a couple of elements about how this documentary can be essayistic.  According to the reading there has to be some meandering, as I see it might look like different viewpoints about a certain topic in which in this mentioned documentary it wasn’t successfully presented. In something to do with the wall the director presents this as people living and coping with the wall mostly, there was some rambling or a different perspective with people who was fine with the wall, but no one actually just loving the wall as it is.  There is also the case of the sort of division on the documentary when the wall falls and it does look a different interaction with this subject. There is an openness in the final but I believe is an open conclusion to two different subjects.

In the case of the gleaners and I and the case of the grinning Cat there are some more essayistic approaches and also they both start with a subject or its content and there is some evolution of as described in the text this greater truth that as an audience we all get, still it might vary, there are cohesive elements that lead us toward one theme instead of two as is the case of the documentary about the Wall.

The gleaners and I start with the description of the painting and then during the evolution of the documentary there is this study about different kind of gleaning and how we all became gleaners at a certain point. There is some poetic approach, in the process of the director recognizing herself as a gleaner, the different images and the self reflection while looking at her hand. All those elements are a collection of different modes that help the audience to get this understanding of what is represented in the director’s style. In the case of the Grinning Cat, although is was a bit harder to follow because of all this different elements related or not related, there is the basic element of the essayistic mode or this meander that lead us to a certain point.  I felt very identified by the French way of treating liberty and politics and how sometimes these sorts of different protests don’t have any sense-same thing happen in Chile. On the other hand, the meaning of the cat and its representation of taking freedom of speech is an invaluable mean to myself even though sometimes this may be a trend more that a conscious effort of self awareness. 

In short, on the contrary of the expository mode, the essayistic mode won’t give you all the facts or tell everything as truthful or one conclusion.  It would expose different perspective; related or non-related with different means to get to a bigger picture about what is being on discussion.