The Process of Alan Berliner and Nobody’s Business
Nobody’s Business is a great movie. Although, calling it a movie is a bit of a stretch; it’s more of a collage.
Through a series of interviews and a lot of familial research, Alan Berliner created a film that morphed from a biography about Oscar Berliner, his father, into a film about family and its history. That isn’t to say that the film is less about Oscar – that would be naive to say – but it is a family history from the perspective of Alan, which is rooted in Oscar’s life and personality. Oscar’s personality (mainly his unwavering convictions) provides a much deeper reading into his life than ever could it had Oscar been more forthcoming with his story.
In a lecture at New York University (NYU), Alan Berliner said this:
The thing that struck me most when watching the movie was how convinced Oscar was that his story was not worth telling. At one point he says his story is “no different from who knows how many millions of people.” To a certain extent I understand his argument. Personally, I found his story relatable. Although our backgrounds largely differ, my father emigrated from Germany shortly after WWII, and I’ve taken a similar interest in my family’s history as a result. But what makes Oscar’s opinion interesting to me is that his story’s intensity and what makes it fascinating to audiences is less to do with the actual family history, and more to do with the director’s editing process.
I think Alan Berliner is well aware of this because at the end of the film he plays the audio from one of the interviews with his father in which Oscar decries his son’s chosen career and suggests that Alan could have become an accountant, or an engineer. This part of the film is nicely summarized in this week’s readings when Michael Renov concludes, “We, the audience, are left to judge the son’s worth for ourselves as the film draws to a close.” Furthermore, Alan recognizes his talent for “putting things together.” This is evidenced again by the lecture at NYU:
This brings me to the point of my response. I found this movie encompassed what I take it is the point of this course: documentaries are all constructed from fragments of information, which Alan affectionately refers to as “stored potentials.” They are able to create meaning through the use of basic film making techniques (montage being one of the most vital). Alan Berliner is able to take images, videos, interviews, paper forms, and audio and combine them into a film that follows his constructed narrative – a collage of his own interpretation of events.
