306 Hollywood
What constitutes a documentary? In the words of Scottish documentary filmmaker and critic John Grierson, documentaries are “the creative treatment of actuality.” Elan and Jonathan Bogarin’s documentary 306 Hollywood completely embodies this definition. The film guides us through the home of the filmmakers’ late grandmother after her passing—showing the house and the objects inside it under a different light. In its form, the documentary consists of archival footage from when the grandmother was alive, to new footage in the house, to old recordings, and re-enactments of those recordings. The juxtapositioning of VHS footage of the grandmother versus the modern, high resolution, cinematic footage in the home after her passing gives the documentary a surreal feel. With that said, the mise-en-scene of the film in its use of performances, colorful shots, shadows and silhouettes of the grandmother, and even choice of music adds a fantastical element to the documentary. This allows the documentary to branch out from the traditional expository, talking-heads, Ken Burns style and tread into a more narrative-esque style of documentary filmmaking.
With the use of these techniques, the filmmakers of 306 Hollywood are able to bring life into a morbid subject—literal death. By adding modern elements to the old footage, as well as filming new footage of old objects, including close-ups of the grandmother’s junk, they are able to keep her alive in a way. In addition, the filmmakers’ choice to use a smaller model of their grandmother’s home and place it in the modern world with people walking behind it allows for this item of the past, a house that has long been associated with someone who is no longer alive, to blend into the present. By showing the people walking behind the model of the house it calls attention to the fact that although a person may die, the rest of the world does not stop. The house may literally be a tangible structure but throughout the film, it acts as a symbol for death.
This documentary is classified as a magical-realist one, but also dabbles into the territory of the hybrid-fiction genre. With its usage of actors re-enacting the audio recordings of the grandmother, it brings performative elements into the non-fiction piece. Often times when we watch documentaries we are under the impression that we are being objectively informed with strictly factual and unbiased content. Nonetheless, as seen in 306 Hollywood, documentaries take many forms and can serve solely for the purpose of conducting a narrative. By choosing a certain shot over another or by choosing the order in which the events in the documentary unravel, it can create the filmmaker’s intended narrative. As we tend to categorize this form of media under the nonfiction genre, it is very easy to forget that it is one of the most biased mediums. Because of this, along with the fact that the moving image is generally a highly influential medium, documentaries have the power to persuade the masses. With that said, the form that 306 Hollywood takes is able to transcend documentary conventions and redefine our understanding of documentaries.












