Laps dokumentaalsarjas „Eesti lood“
Date
2012
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
The aim of this bachelor’s thesis named “A Child in Documentary Series “Eesti lood” is to
analyze how children are represented in these films as the main characters, which are their
characters, which narrative authors want to tell to audience and which devices they use.
Documentaries series “Eesti lood” has been running for nine seasons. These half-an-hour
documentaries are produced with a low budget and topics are related with contemporary
topics – outstanding people, events and actions. Anyone with necessary skills and ideas can
apply for a grant financed by Estonian Public Broadcasting, Cultural Endowment of Estonia
and Estonian Film Foundation to produce documentaries for this project.
In the thesis three films are analyzed. Observational mode and children as main characters are
common to the selected three films and distinguish them from the other 105 films in the
series. The narrative that connects three different topics is the growing of children and them
getting used to with rules of the adult world. Although there are some similarities between the
films, the styles of authors are completely different. Triškina observes idyllic childhood with
great sympathy, Rannastu follows the business of selling newspapers from distance not to
disturb a regular workday. In her film, Lääne feels sorry for children who have to compete in
school entry tests in an early age.
Characters are analyzed via Rimmon-Kenan characterization theory that distinguishes direct
and indirect representation. As films are mainly made by using observational style authors do
not interfere with the action nor do they give comments on characters, most of the analysis
emphasizes on indirect representation which considers characters’ action, speech, appearance
and environment.
The final aspect of the thesis is the analysis of the devices that authors use to keep the
narrative going – it is about the discourse of the narrative. Devices are illustrated with
examples and comments from authors. In addition to film analysis three interviews were held
with the authors to ask about their ideas and devices.
There are several ways to continue research on the current topic, for example, to analyze
children in documentaries outside of the “Eesti lood” series or to choose different kinds of
characters from the series (woman, man, elder people etc) or to concentrate on some other
mode of documentaries (poetic, expository, reflexive, performative or interactive).