An Evening with Paul Watson

Paul Watson should have been on my radar years ago.

I didn't go to film school, so I can't really be labeled a philistine. I'm just happy his work has entered my documentary lexicon now.

I subscribe to an e-bulletin for a bi-monthly arts and culture event called Ebenezer Presents... based at a way-off-the-beaten-track venue called the Seed Factory in Aller, Somerset. Not everything on their events list appeals to me, but a night entitled: 'Splat! A Fly on the Wall, An Evening of Conversation with Paul Watson' caught my eye and I decided to go, accompanied by my mum who lives not far from Aller.

Paul Watson's repertoire spans approx. 300 documentary films, and yet I hadn't heard of a single one. Watson is said to have spawned the reality TV genre in the UK, and this was plenty enough of a draw for me to make the journey from Bristol on a wet January evening.

Watson hates modern reality TV programmes, and he made this exceedingly clear in his opening sentence. I should have defended it as I work in the industry, but I can see how his fly-on-the-wall style has been eaten up, and mutated into a colder, less authentic way of portraying 'real life'.

I do side with Watson, especially after watching a montage of his work, and a feature length documentary titled 'The Fishing Party' (a portrait of 4 racist, misogynistic toffs enjoying a watery, rum-fuelled jolly in Scotland - which apparently was Margaret Thatcher's most hated film!). 

Watson's main bugbear with modern documentary is that there's not enough time spent with contributors. Directors don't self-shoot, they watch from remote galleries with hot-head operators controlling multi-rig cameras. From the very start of his career, Watson was truly in the thick of it all. Through the lens, he's witnessed: death, marital breakdown, and had puke sprayed all over him.

I agree that you loose a sense of intimacy with fixed rig cameras and there's never enough money in the budget to spend a decent amount of time building trust with your contributors. Although programmes like 24 Hours in A&E and First Dates give you unique access to some very volatile and unusual situations - the contributors are not spilling their hearts out to a filmmaker who's been filming with them consistently for 6 to 12 months.

Trust is something that is lacking when the cameras are fixed to walls and ceilings rather than being an extension of the filmmaker's body.

We have an appetite for mindless, rambling, product placement-heavy TV now so I've no doubt that the industry will provide fixed-rig formats and 'structured reality' shows for sometime to come. Programmes like TOWIE and MIC are basically soap operas, except the 'actors' don't have to try too hard to learn their lines.

Like any genre of popular culture: documentary production has strayed from its origin in an avant garde fashion - but there are always going to be purists sticking close to the roots of the movement.

I'm guilty of watching (and making) mindless TV: sometimes I just need a warm, colourful, sugary piece of escapism.

However, there is nothing more engaging and tantalizing than immersing myself in a proper independently made feature documentary authored by someone who's spent a year or more with their subject(s), stayed by their side while the subject wrestles with their personal demons. To Molly Deneen, Vanessa Engle, Louis Theroux and Asif Kapadia I will now add Paul Watson as my top-ranking UK documentary filmmakers.

Their films may be uncompromisingly intimate, beguiling or tragic. Their films will also undoubtably make me question the nature of humanity and how we fit into this crazy, topsy-turvy world of ours.

They keep my brain ticking over and encouraging me to be brave and dare to make challenging content too.

Links to articles and interviews with Paul Watson:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/3560798/Paul-Watson-The-Family.html 
http://www.bafta.org/television/features/paul-watson-a-life-in-television 
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2006/nov/20/mondaymediasection4
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/7140605.stm