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T. Dan Smith (1987) stands out as one of Amber's most ambitious and experimental projects.
Filmed over two years, and with close collaboration from Smith himself, the film
incorporates documentary footage and contemporary interviews with Smith within a
framework of the filmmakers discussing the sort of film they should be making
and what sort of stance it should take on Smith. This is itself interwoven with
a fictional drama of political corruption that mirrors the 'Poulson Scandal'
(concerning political corruption in awarding building contracts in the late
1960s/early 1970s) that brought about Smith's own downfall.
This complex, triple-layered structure was
singled out for criticism by most reviewers, who argued that it was more likely
to confuse than illuminate, and that a more traditional or conventional
documentary approach would have a given a clearer account to audiences. However,
this is rather to miss the whole point of Amber's approach. By exposing the
process of documentary making, the filmmakers' own uncertainties regarding
Smith, and by setting 'fact' alongside 'fiction', the audience is both reminded
of the editorialising that a conventional documentary treatment seeks to hide,
and invited to form its own judgement. By rejecting the conventional
'authoritative account' model for a more discursive (and some might say
Brechtian) account, Amber characteristically allows its subject, Smith, his own
voice, and its audience their own judgement.
A fascinating film that repays repeated
viewing, it is a sad testimony to the continued dominance of the conventional
documentary approach that T. Dan Smith remains one of the most innovative
and challenging documentaries to have been broadcast in
Britain. Martin Hunt
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