Recent discussion about our good friends Tom & Sumner Burstyn’s film This Way of Life has explored whether it sits naturally in the documentary field or whether it should be rebranded as ‘A True Story’ for US release. For those of you who are yet to encounter this magical film, it’s currently on the shortlist for the Oscars – to be announced 25 Jan. If you haven’t heard of it, you soon will. When, as we hope and expect, This Way of Life makes it through to the final 5 contenders, it will become the lowest-budget film ever to be nominated.

There’s some interesting parallels between The Insatiable Moon and This Way of Life. The most obvious is that they overlap through the brilliant work of Thomas Burstyn – director and cinematographer of This Way of Life, and cinematographer and associate producer of The Insatiable Moon. Interestingly, both stories are grounded in reality. This Way of Life reflects on the lives of Peter and Colleen Karena and their children, while The Insatiable Moon is based on the life of Arthur of Ponsonby. In this sense, they are both ‘true stories’. While the former uses documentary footage to construct a riveting drama, the latter employs dramatic performances to represent a reality grounded in history. Both seek after truth – but always the hidden truth buried in human lives.

This raises the question of what truth is, and how it relates to cinema – a question to be considered not only in relation to documentaries but also dramas. It’s an under-recognised fact that the camera always lies (despite the aphorism to the contrary). The very act of framing limits perspective in an intentional way – restricting the field of vision for a purpose. It leads the viewer to see in a certain way, cutting out what is judged to be peripheral in order to focus on that which is deemed significant. Editing of course adds another layer of interpretation, when the inherent story of the film is brought to the surface – a process which applies as much to ‘factual documentary’ as to feature dramas.

So on one level there is no truth in cinema, if we define truth as uninterpreted experience. But this of course is not what we mean by truth. Truth is not scientific observation (though that too is interpreted). It is the longing for meaning and purpose and insight. In this sense, all but the most trivial (reality TV?) filmmaking is relevant to the quest for truth. It’s what gives cinema heart and resonance, and provides its transformational power. This Way of Life and The Insatiable Moon share the exploration of the human spirit and its unending depths – they’re both constructions and both true stories.

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