Nobody's Business - Documentary Response

Nobody’s Business

In the documentary “Nobody’s Business,” the director Alan Berliner takes a look into his fathers past. As we watch we see that one of his main goals are to understand why his mother and father got a divorce. That’s where the title of this movie comes from – for when Alan asks his father why they got a divorce he replies saying that it’s “nobody’s business.” Besides looking into his parents divorce, Alan is interested in finding (anything) out about his ancestors, and where they came from.

           

            The filmmakers relationship with his subject is son to father. Alan (the director) holds the power, for he is the one with all the information on his family’s history. While his father has no knowledge of anything, and is frankly uninterested to find out about his past. Alan would ask his father about his past to which his father had no recollection and would say something funny like “how the hell would I know” or “I don’t care to know.”  This creates a sort of comedic aspect to the documentary. Alan doesn’t abuse the power that he has over his father, but he merely uses it to see if he can retain any new information from his father that he doesn’t already know. Unfortunately, his father proves to know absolutely nothing, which was funny, but at the same time unsatisfying.

            The gaze was either on Alan’s father or on home videos of his mother and his father from twenties and early thirties. The home videos Alan choses to put in the documentary illustrate his fathers line perfectly, almost as if the home videos were made for the documentary. 

           

The point of view in Nobody’s Business was factual with all the information that we as the audience were getting from Alan’s fathers past, yet it was comical by how the information was delivered. For example, Alan would tell his father that his relatives came from somewhere in Russia, and his father would follow up to that with “who the hell cares,” it put a funny spin on an otherwise factual documentary about a mans ancestors.

           

The voice of this piece was interactive and easy to follow along. It was meant to be understood, and not overly complicated. It was an amazing documentary, and I enjoyed it immensely.

 

It’s hard to explain how this is considered perceived power, but basically Alan has just asked Oscar (his father) why he and Alan’s mother got a divorce. Oscar looks puzzled, and frankly a little sad, but then replies saying that “it’s nobody’s business.” Alan is the one holding the power, for he asks his father this very emotional question and he is waiting for a sort of reaction or response. It puts his father in a very vulnerable place, and it shows on his face in the picture. (Oscar isn’t the one with the power, but you never see the Alan’s face in this scene – that’s why I chose this picture).