Black Prison White Playground Analysis

With films like Black Prison-White Playground, there is a shift from being represented by outsiders to having Aboriginals represent themselves. The fact that the filmmaker is an Aboriginal means that Black Prison-White Playground has a significant level of credibility and authenticity, as it is a film about Aboriginals, by an Aboriginal. Thus, if it is a film about indigenous people, having an indigenous filmmaker would make the film more real than any other external representations of the indigenous community can be. As Abigail Solomon-Godeau (2008) suggests, documentaries are based on a presumption of insiderness. Thus, truthfulness of a film is greatly affected by the background of the filmmaker, and how much of an insider the filmmaker
It can be said that the background music in this film simply complements and enhances, but it does not distract or take away from the original meanings of the text. For instance, during interviews discussing anecdotes of the violence inflicted on the aboriginals, there is insertion of emotional music, but even without the music, the audience would naturally be feeling upset or emotional based on just the original text showing the violence that took place. Hence, in this case, the music in this film does not affect its truthfulness; it simply enhances the emotional impact. As said by Werner Herzog (2002), documentary filmmaker who made use of musical and even highly staged scenes in his film Death For Five Voices, these scenes do not depart from reality, but result in a higher form of authenticity: “There are deeper strata of truth in cinema, and there is such a thing as a poetic, ecstatic truth.” As such, sound effects may affect a film’s representation of reality, but it depends on how much the addition of audio changes audience interpretation of the original