MovieChat Forums > Neighbours (1952) Discussion > Documentary???

Documentary???

posted 17 years ago by soupe-au-poulet
5 replies | jump to latest

For all of you who watch or even didn't watch this short animation, I shall ask the question, why is it in Documentary section?? I just don't understand...

This movie was made by Norman McLaren, a genius in animation cinema in Quebec for the ONF (Office nationale du film which is translate in English as: NFB [National Film Board]). It is a small and funny animation, I don't see anything that could make us think it is a documentary. So why does imdb put Neighbours in the top of the best documentaries ever?

I hope to hear from you guys soon

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] themonkeyman50 17 years ago

Sure, it doesn't make sense, but it didn't originate with IMDb. The category that Neighbours won the Oscar in was actually "Documentary, Short Subject". Later, the Academy admitted that it and other films were nominated in "clearly inappropriate categories", or something like that, I forget exactly how it went. It's in the Wikipedia article. Anyway, that's probably why it's in the documentary list here. Luckily, they allow movies to list in more than one category, so people looking for shorts and/or animation won't miss out on it.

[–] Artemis-9 12 years ago

Thank you for your explanation. If the Oscar section in that particular year was "Documentary, Short Subject" (admitting that documentaries and short films couldn't have a separate section of their own), the film was admitted OK, because it is a short film.
It may also be categorized as Animation, as it uses frame-by-frame cutting and editing to transform the human characters in cartoon characters, and pastel scenarios.
A documentary it most decidedly is not.

[–] stevem-26 12 years ago

I remember watching a film, full length, made up of I think, seven shorts. I believe the title had the word "seven" in it. "Neighbors" was in it, and a film about an old man who made yearly trips up the South Nahanni River, looking for gold, or somesuch. His first name was Albert and his last name began with an "F".

It was probably in the 60s when I saw it, and it was on television.
I wonder if this film was a temporary cobbling together of these seven shorts, or whether they are still existing as a unit.

Any help would be appreciated.

Steve M.

[–] gromit82 9 years ago

The Oscar category was Best Documentary, Short Subject; they also had a separate category that year for Best Documentary, Feature. The category in which Neighbours won was supposed to be for films that were both short subjects and documentaries; Neighbours shouldn't have been nominated in that category.

And they also had separate categories for Best Short Subject, Cartoon; Best Short Subject, One-Reel; and Best Short Subject, Two-Reel.

The Best Short Subject, One-Reel category seems most appropriate for this film, and it was nominated in that category.

The problem wasn't a lack of a proper category to put Neighbours in, but the failure of the Academy to follow its own rules in classifying films. The definition of a documentary at the Oscars could sometimes be somewhat hazy; The War Game (1965) and The Hellstrom Chronicle (1971) are other questionable examples.