Kirby Dick - Themes

Themes

Dick's work often focuses on issues of secrecy, hypocrisy, and human sexuality. Many of his films explore subjects and issues that have traditionally been taboo, such as homosexuality, sadomasochism, and sexual abuse. Ryan Stewart of Cinematical notes that, "Kirby Dick has been compared to photographer Diane Arbus in the way he prefers to open the camera lens to the pained, the freakish and the inexplicable that exists on the margins of everyday life".

Aesthetically, Dick often employs intricately edited montages that blend together television news clips, archival footage, music videos, documentary interviews, and other sources. Beginning with This Film Is Not Yet Rated, he has also pioneered applying the "fair use" doctrine to appropriate copyrighted footage without the need to obtain licenses or compensate rights holders.

Dick employs a cinéma vérité style of filmmaking. He has said that he prefers to work this way because it allows for a more complex relationship with his subjects. In many cases, Dick has also encouraged his subjects to record their own footage, which is then incorporated into the finished film.

Of all Dick's films, many are considered to be of the "participatory mode", in regards to the various documentary modes. Bill Nichols, author of Introduction To Documentary, defines the participatory mode as "direct engagement between the filmmaker and subjects- the filmmaker becomes part of the events being recorded. Some examples include: This Film Is Not Yet Rated, Derrida, Chain Camera, and The End. In each of these films, Dick is either seen interviewing his subjects, accessing information, or instructing his subjects what to shoot. Without Kirby Dick's influencing participatory documentaries, many films of the same caliber may have not been made.