Sep 24, 2013
The direct cinema documetarists took their cameras to a situation of tension and waited hopefully for a crisis; the Rouch version of cinema verite tried to precipitate one. The direct cinema artist aspired to to invisibility; the Rouch cinema verite artist was often an avowed participant. The direct cinema artist played the role of uninvolved bystander; the cinema verite artist expoused that of provocateur. Direct cinema fount its truth i events available to the camera. Cinema verite was commited to a paradox: that artificial circumstances could bring hidden truth to the surface.
Eric Barnouw, Documentary: A History of the Non-Fiction Film