Question:

How the use of cinematography can immerse the viewer into the real horrors of war through the use of documentary filmmaking and the film 20 Days in Mariupol?

Introduction:

How can film and documentary films immerse the viewer into what is being depicted on screen?

Through the use of moving images, there are many ways a viewer can become immersed within the use of film or documentary film, whether it's through the use of relating stories to the audience, making the viewer reminisce, or documenting historical events they have lived through or are involved in and through an emotional effect on the audience. Through this essay, I want to investigate the use of how documentary films can make the viewer become immersed in the film. More particularly, though, I want to look at how the use of cinematography and camera techniques are a more powerful tool in making the viewer feel more emotionally immersed within the documentary films.

In this genre of documentary films, the filmmaker has the power to take the time to immerse the viewer into the topic of the film. For the filmmaker, it's key that the film can connect with people and make them feel something when watching a film, Whether it's through the use of tension, sadness, or even happiness. In this essay, I want to look at one documentary that does this well, using immersion to take the viewer on an emotional rollercoaster.

This comes from the 2023 documentary ‘20 Days in Mariupol’, made by Ukrainian journalist and photographer Mstyslav Chernov. The documentary depicts the first 20 days of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine through the ‘unflinching account’ of some of the events that took place in the city of Mariupol.

Figure 1:

20 Days in Mariupol is shot from the first-person perspective of a small team of journalists and photographers in the city at the time of the Russian invasion. Figure 2 shows a photograph of the crew that shot this chilling documentary. From left to right, we have PBS producer Michelle Mizner, Director-producer Mstyslav Chernov, still photographer Evgeniy Maloletka and Field producer Vasilisa Stepanenko.

Figure 2:

Mariupol sits in the eastern part of Ukraine. the port city is seen as a strategic prize for both sides in this war as it’s a prime location sitting right on the sea of Azov.

The crew pulled up into Mariupol at 3:30 am on the 24th February; the war then started an hour later. At this point the crew were in Mariupol and would now be stuck in Mariupol for the first 20 days of the conflict as they film the very start of the conflict and how this city comes under heavy siege. The crew documents the many horrific sights they see, like the looting of shops by desperate civilians, men, women, and children having to flee their homes, the deaths of innocent children, the mass graves dug within the city, and the ever-enclosing Russian forces coming in closer and closer to the centre of the city.

Section 1- Hospital scene:

One part of the documentary that immerses the viewer fully into the chaos and brutality of war comes from the midway point within the film. The scene is when our crew finds out about the horrific bombing of the nearby maternity hospital. This comes 14 days after the crew was trapped within the city, at a point where they were cut off from the rest of Ukraine and the world. The crew starts documenting the moments just before the explosion goes off. We see our reporters in the street hiding from planes and explosions until they hear a louder explosion in the near distance.

Figure 3:

We see the crew run towards the hospital ready to record the devastation and destruction of the area as we see mothers and young children crowded in the shelled-out courtyard, with soldiers giving out aid and police ordering people to safety. The feeling of immersion comes in this scene through the use of the movement of the camera as we go from incident to incident and the shots showing the destruction that has fallen upon the city.

There are many reasons why this style of immersion is key to telling the true war stories of Mariupol. Immersion comes from a place where the viewer needs to feel connected to what is happening on the screen.

Immersion comes from a state of being deeply engaged within the subject matter being depicted. This documentary does this through the means of a deep emotional impact. This is accentuated and made more impactful through the creative use of the camera movement through its use of quick pans from subject to subject, and even its use of the perspective of the camera giving the viewer the feeling of immersion due to the orientation of the camera as it looks like the viewer is seeing these events first hand.

The combination of these camera techniques and handling adds to the emotions triggered by the censored nature of the subjects on screen. The documentary footage captured by the crew is so powerful that we (the viewers) feel as if we are experiencing all the horrors of war. For me, the use of the camera in these scenes is key as it allows the viewer to see the first-hand account of the destruction of war. In the book Representing Reality Nichols (1991:40), there is a section of the text that states “the presence of the camera “on the scene” testifies to its presence in the historical world; its fixity suggests a commitment or engagement with the immediate, intimate, and personal that is comparable to what an actual observer/participant might experience (without unrestricted resource to the dynamization of time and space that cinema allows)”

This is very pertinent to the power of immersion in the film. This comes from the use of the smaller handheld camera used by the crew’s hospital. The handheld cameras have been used in many different conflicts in recent years. In the article How I Shoot the War by Shmulik Duvdevani (2013:281) They say that “the use of a digital camera by a regular soldier during battles creates a new experience of war for the viewer, one that is both more intimate and more horrifying”. For years within the 21st century, there have been these ways of capturing combat.

With this comes the emotional and intimate way of getting the viewer engaged with the footage of these brutal events with the viewer being forced to see the combat this first-hand perspectives of what is happening. Although this is modern history, we must remember that with this film and the way it is made although being shot during real-time events, it is documenting moments that occurred in the past. For this film to have been made, it had to have been edited into chronological order so they could tell the story of the events that happened. This does not mean that the file is edited to show the war in an untruthful and inaccurate state. Everything within the film is documenting events that happened.

In an interview with Mystlav Chernov, he states “You want to immerse them [the audience] in this experience. But at the same time, you can't just drop footage, however important it is, on the audience and expect that they will stay engaged for 90 minutes or they will understand the story. It still has to follow cinematic rules. It still has to be, the story still has to have a narrative arc.” He wanted to keep the footage in its rawest form not adding much to the clips just telling the story of the events that happened. He also said, “The editing has to have its pace, and themes have to be established and reaffirmed.”

This is prevalent throughout the film as through this very simple style of editing the documentary still achieves this feeling of making the film feel as naturalistic as possible. These events of the hospital bombing need to be documented as one of the most memorable images of this war that being the image of a pregnant woman being carried out on a stretcher of the destroyed hospital complex.

Figure 4:

The woman was pictured covered in her blood and is as pale as a ghost. We later learn this woman was ‘Irina Kalinina’ a 30-year-old woman.

This scene imagery is a massive turning point within the documentary as the crew only uses handheld cameras that create this feeling of immersion with its use of quick pans from one focus point to the next, it constantly keeps the viewer on the edge of their seat as they don’t know what’s going to happen.

The use of camera panning in the scene comes from the choice to document the disaster of the hospital as we follow the woman being carried out of the destruction that surrounds her. The use of the panning technique allows the viewer to go from one point of view (1) to the next point of view (2). Having the use of this technique allows the audience to see more of the scene in turn letting the viewer see the destruction that Mariupol saw during those 20 days.

Figure 5:

This can also act as a very emotional testimony to Irina Kalinina as with the use of this panning shot, we see her almost lifeless body taken away. The lady had suffered a crushed pelvis and a detached hip and had lost a lot of blood, as reported by Al Jazeera (2022). After “realizing she was losing her baby, the medics said she cried out to them "Kill me now!”. She later died after being moved to another hospital, where doctors tried to do everything they could to save her and her child.

This use of handheld camera operation allows the operator to have these quick movements from subject to subject allowing the viewer to see the chaos from one camera movement to the next which makes the documentary smoother as we can see each tiny aspect and tale to end up getting the bigger picture.

Figure 6:

The hospital scene of the film is a hard watch for the viewer as a good percentage of the viewership of this documentary cannot relate to the events captured in this film but through an emotional level. The viewer can always find an emotional connection to the imagery seen on screen as we feel the pain and heartache of the civilians of Mariupol and what they have gone through.

We feel sympathy for what they are experiencing which gets the viewer involved in the action and the intense feelings viewer feel as if it's them being put into an environment that they would not normally watch/ find themselves in this documentary, shows how the war is affecting the civilians of Mariupol.

Section 2- point of view shots:

After the hospital scenes, the next scene I want to look at comes near the end of the film. This scene is where the group is rescued and escorted out of the main part of the city and off to a section of the city that is still under Ukrainian control. This comes from where the Russian Federation is making advances towards the centre of the city.

We join the crew being picked up by a special task force recovering the journalist from the hospital. The group is ordered to strictly follow the soldier’s commands as they risk their life to return to the vans. heading through destroyed tower blocks, burnt-out cars, and occupied streets. It’s some of the most intense filming as from the viewer's perspective we can tell that everyone within this scene is on edge.

The soldiers lead the group of journalists to the safety of their vans, through these shots we can see that the besieged city has been left to ruins. After facing 17 days of bombardment from tanks, bombings, shelling, and heavy artillery.

The crew recording their evacuation gives a vital account of what is happening at this time as they are the only journalists left in the city.

From this scene, we have much more intense use of the handheld camera and how it’s used. In these scenes, it’s a lot more shaky with the accompanied use of fast-paced camera motions.

The use of the shaky camera from the handheld movements gives this feeling of being there as if we, the viewer, are being involved in the experience.

Figure 7:

Figure 8:

The use of these camera angles gives that eye level as we get glimpses of the destroyed scenery, as it is shot from our camera operator’s perspective through his movements. Through when the camera flinches from the explosions the viewer is then aware of the fear and adrenaline that the camera operator is feeling in this moment. We experience this through the movement the camera makes, it’s a completely different way for the viewer to get immersed in the footage. As before, unlike the graphic image we are shown in the hospital scene which immerses the viewer emotionally, this time the immersion comes through the movement of the camera and the way emotions and feelings are captured through the camera movement within this scene.

Figure 9:

Figure 10:

With the movement of the camera through this section of the documentary we can get a sense of the emotions the crew are going through due to the nature of the footage being shaky. We can tell our crew is scared, they are on edge and terrified of what is to come.

This is projected onto the audience through the use of the camera. This level of immersion in the film plays with the viewer's emotions. Nichols. B (1991:17) “It is hard to be reflective if you have something urgent to say about a pressing issue, and for most documentaries, the urgency of the said takes far higher precedence than the self-consciousness of the saying”.

With this it's clear that the crew when documenting this the crew’s senses are heightened, and this comes across in the film as with these scenes the viewer is on edge as we are worried for the safety of the crew in these highly intense situations.

Conclusion:

This documentary documents some of the most awful atrocities that civilians faced in the medieval like the siege that the city of Mariupol faced in the 20 days the crew filmed whilst they were there.

Although the crew was only there for 20 days before being evacuated from Mariupol, Chernov acknowledged that after they left the city saw even more torment as many more horrendous occurred to the city as shortly after the crew left, Russia committed one of the biggest war crimes during this conflict as Russia shelled the Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theatre where it recorded nearly 600 people were killed.

Figure 11:

Figure 12:

The city fell under Russian control in 86 days of brutal military tactics and constant shelling of the city. 86 days of brutal artillery bombardment, 86 days of killing innocent civilians. 86 days until Russia was rapidly rebuilding the city wiping any sort of Ukrainian identity from the city.

The documentary will be held up for many years to come in the aspects of immersing the viewer into the turmoil of war, with the film drawing attention to the topic of what is happening in Ukraine at the start of the war and even across Ukraine to the present day. This was made possible through the crew's use of cinematography with the use of the hand-held cameras, the power of immersion can pull the viewer into the chaos of war as these techniques bring a new audience in to see the film and get a first-hand account of what happened and what is happening in Ukraine.

The film was first shown to the people of Mariupol in a screening showing the people of the city what has happened to Ukraine. The immersion of the film helps in hand with the impact of the film. In an interview with Chernov done by PBS (Malig, K. 2023) he said that he wants the film to give people hope as he said: “People walk away with hope. It is not easy to watch, but there is a lot of hope in this film. In every moment when you see people suffering and losing their loved ones, they’re never alone”.

This film serves as a conveyor of hope, it is a message to the masses who watch this film that the strength and unity of Ukraine is strong and always will be. The film is a testament to the power of first-hand account and journalism within combat zones as this style of documentary has not been seen/used in this as the use of immersion has not been done well in any documentary style. It’s a hard thing to accomplish as this film puts the viewer in these highly intense scenes that people watching will have an emotional impact on the true stories being told through the movement of the camera and its use of using the camera to being a tool to tell the story of what people have gone through.

Figures: 

• Figure 1: 20 days in Mariupol film poster- https://www.imdb.com/title/tt24082438/ - (2023)  

• Figure 2: Crew shot- https://www.thewrap.com/20-days-in-mariupol-sundance-interview/ - (2023) 

• Figure 3: Photographer Evgeniy Maloletka points at the smoke rising after an airstrike on a maternity hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine, https://20daysinmariupol.com/#gallery  (March 9, 2022.) (AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov) 

• Figure 4: Hospital strike in Mariupol- https://apnews.com/article/photo-ukraine-ap-mariupol-award-maloletka-699cb8362ac8cffefcec9496881fd9db - (2022) 

• Figure 5: Panning movement diagram- https://www.red.com/red-101/camera-panning-speed -(2019) 

• Figure 6: Cameras used for documentary- https://mieroszewski.pl/en/news/20-days-in-mariupol -(2023) 

• Figure 7: Screenshot of the film during the escape scene- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23SG32MM8HA - (2022) 

• Figure 8: Mariupol after shelling and bombing by Russian troops. st. Mitropolitskaya, 108-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mitropolitskaya_st._108,_Mariupol_20220323_005.jpg - (2022) 

• Figure 9: screenshot of the film during the escape scene- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23SG32MM8HA - (2022) 

• Figure 10: screenshot of the film during the escape scene- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23SG32MM8HA - (2022) 

• Figure 11: satellite image of the theater in Mariupol- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60776929 - (2022)  

• Figure 12: The Russian word for "children" had been written on the ground outside the theatre- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-61979873 -(2022) 

Bibliography/ reference:

• 20 Days in Mariupol (2023) Directed by Chernov, M. United States, Ukraine: https://20daysinmariupol.com/

• 20 days in Mariupol (2023) At: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/20-days-in-mariupol/

• Al Jazeera (2022) Mariupol maternity ward bombing: Pregnant woman, baby die. At: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/14/pregnant-woman-baby-die-after-russia-bombed-maternity-ward

• BBC News (2022) 'Ukraine war: Three dead as maternity hospital hit by Russian air strike' In: BBC 09/03/2022 At:https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60675599

• Bradshaw, P. (2023) 'Best films of 2023 in the UK: No 4 – 20 days in Mariupol' In: The guardian 19/12/2023 At: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/dec/19/best-films-of-2023-in-the-uk-no-4-20-days-in-mariupol

• Chernov, M. (2022) Pregnant woman, baby die after Russian bombing in Mariupol. At: https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-maternity-hospital-pregnant-woman-dead-c0f2f859296f9f02be24fc9edfca1085

• Duvdevani, S. (2014) how i shot the war- ideology and accountability in personal Israeli war documentaries. At: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1386/sdf.7.3.279_1?casa_token=OPDlcCf_El0AAAAA:AP2Mm9RAjil_z_aorAi0M1XmsEG1PHYx_l8bg_nDKhRsjkGPOTyFa7l1tlSAtfK8kqn7nJ2rFSF2Fg

• Higgins, C. (2023) '‘It felt like the beginning of the third world war ... It still does’ – Mstyslav Chernov on 20 Days in Mariupol' In: The guardian 29/09/2023 At: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/sep/29/20-days-in-mariupol

• Jenkins, P. (2022a) 20 reasons why documentaries are important. At: https://brilliantio.com/why-documentaries-are-important/

• Jenkins, P. (2022) Documentary film benefits. At: https://brilliantio.com/documentary-film-benefits/

• Macnab, G. (2023) “I realised we needed to film everything”: the story behind ‘20 Days In Mariupol’. At: https://www.screendaily.com/features/i-realised-we-needed-to-film-everything-the-story-behind-20-days-in-mariupol/5188619.article

• Malig, K. (2023) ‘20 Days in Mariupol’ filmmaker on what is left of the city after the Russian invasion. At: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/20-days-in-mariupol-filmmaker-q-and-a/

• Nichols, B. (1991) Representing Reality: Issues and concepts in documentary. Bloomington, MN, USA: Indiana University Press.- chapter 2 of the documentary Modes of Representation and chapter 1 of The Domain of Documentary

• Og, B. M. (2023.) Documentaries: A bridge between knowledge and immersion. At: https://www.history-filmfestival.com/creative-landscape-photography-tips-techniques/

• Russian invasion of Ukraine 2022 (2022) At: https://www.mstyslav.com/russian-invasion-of-ukraine

• Vance, G. (2024) How ‘20 days in Mariupol’ was shot in the midst of war. At: https://nofilmschool.com/20-days-in-mariupol

• Vulliamy, E. (2023) '‘War criminals: whatever you do, we’ll record it’: the ‘merciless’ Ukrainian film about Mariupol' In: The guardian 11/06/2023 At: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/11/ukrainian-film-20-days-in-mariupol-mstyslav-chernov-documentary

• (2022) At: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/dec/19/best-films-ohttps://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2023/feb/23/mariupol-the-ruin-of-acity#:~:text=For%20more%20than%2080%20days,it%20to%20the%20ground%20first