Filling the Gaps

Abstract

Fernando Sobron’s Filling The Gaps is a reflexive documentary which explores the normally hidden creative processes in documentary filmmaking, and probes the gap between “actuality” and its “creative treatment”. The film juxtaposes an archivist discussing Dürer’s 1515 engraving of a Rhinoceros, which he had never seen, with the filmmaker’s interviews with participants who had never been to Morocco, describing their preconceptions of an unknown country. We do not see the interviews, instead these ideations of Morocco are reconstructed from the audio recordings. The film invites the viewer to reflect on aspects of documentary construction, making connections between these two narrative threads. By imposing such creative constraints, the film draws attention to the creative limitations of all documentary filmmaking.

Keywords

• reflexive
• documentary
• dürer