A+complete+history+of+my+sexual+failures+-+Group+1A

Documentary theorist Bill Nichols asserts that "Drama shares many characteristics with fiction films, but is still unlike fiction in important ways." This is arguably the case for Chris Waitt's "A Complete History of my Sexual Failures" (2007). In a similar fashion to any typical motion picture, the film is narrative and character-driven, through the presentation of Waitt as the film's semi-protagonist. The film also addresses "questions of ideology and social values". This is particularly obvious in terms of the portrayal of relationships - from a mother/son dynamic to failed sexual episodes - and changes in etiquette and social culture. This can clearly be seen in Waitt's dates, as his attitude towards discussions involving sex.
 * //__Documentary and Fiction Film__//**

When discussing commentary in documentary, Nichols argues: "Commentary can include not only direct address but also other tactics or devices that draw attention away from a perspective on the world and toward a more distanced, conceptual accounting of it." This is true of "A Complete History...", as Waitt is the director, narrator and star of his own documentary and is possibly equally noticeable in the work of other documentary makers like Morgan Spurlock. That said, it is no less plausible that "A character can also provide the basic restriction on what we learn and how we learn it. It requires a film maker to subordinate his or her knowledge." Again, this view is upheld in Waitt's work, as he occasionally hinders his - and thus the viewer's - process of discovery. It is often through the use of Waitt's narration that the viewer learns the most. In //“Lies, Damn lies and Documentaries” (London BFI: 2000)// Brian Winston uses the following scale to determine how authentic the documentary and its actions are (with 1 being most authentic): 1. Non-intervention 2. Permissions 3. Delays and Repetitions 4. Re-enactment of witness action 5. Re-enactment of history 6. Re-enactment of the typical 7. Enactment of the possible 8. Enactment of the untypical 9. Acting witnessed history 10. Acting 11. Total intervention As it pertains to //A Complete History,// there is a definite level of intervention. It is made even clearer when a disclaimer at the end of the film essentially says that things are not as they appear, leading the viewer to speculate as to the legitimacy of everything they have seen. The film serves almost as a send-up of the documentary genre.
 * //__Character and Commentary__//**
 * //__Reconstruction Continuum__//**


 * //__Bibliography__//**

//Nichols, Bill, Representing Reality:issues and concepts in documentary, Indiana University Press, c1991 (p107-133)//

//Winston, Brian, Lies Damn Lies and Documentaries, BFI Publishing, 2000 (p102-107)//

Waitt, Chris, A Complete History of My Sexual Failures, 2008.