A Day in the Leaves is an observational documentary of my nephews and brother-in-laws playing in the fall leaves at my parents’ home. Over this Thanksgiving break, we had to help the boys get their energy out, and what better way to do that than letting them play and run around outside? To me, this is them in their natural habitat. For most of it, it is unadulterated fun for the little kids. No rules and nothing that breaks means freedom. They can run as fast as they want, jump as high as they can, and throw whatever they feel like. That’s precisely why observational documentary is the way to go for this kind of documentary. We want kids to be themselves, to do whatever they want or be whoever they want to be when they grow up - this is one of those ways. I couldn’t get in the way of that. Their freedom is their’s, and I was afraid that if I participated too much, that that would ruin their true genuine, and authentic reactions to each other and to their environment.

Grey Gardens was one of our reference film for observational documentary. Its fly-on-the-wall approach was iconic and allowed for the audience to soak in the personalities of the Beales. Even to this day, many people - those involved with production and social actors and friends of the Beales - are still amazed on its realness and authenticity that they exhibited. This approach to the Beales, and the kind of people they were, allowed their personalities and idiosyncrasies to come through and make the film what it is. 

Comparing Grey Gardens to A Day in the Leaves, you see less of my nephews’ personalities. Because of the time and how much I tried to squeeze in, you can’t make out too much of the personalities of my nephews. However, you can still see a bit of things. My nephew Arama loves to run into the leaves and play in the them, similar to his older brother Iraia. Banks is a bit shy and hesitant of going into the leaves. And finally, Drew is pretty content being in the leaves, but sometimes sad or talkative when he’s sitting there alone, in the cold. Also, it’s apparent that you can see the boys like to play and interact with one another, especially Iraia and Arama.

Another nice comparison we see is the boys’ relationships with their fathers. Like how Grey Gardens shows the relationship of mother and daughter, we see father and son. Their relationships depend on play, especially when they are so young. They boys breathe life and youth and fun. To me it is a beautiful scene. The thing that complements this the most, but isn’t that close to observational documentary is the music, Funeral Canticle. I thought the footage could use some more character, and it reminded me of Tree of Life so I put the same song in the background to give it that ethereal, surrealist feeling. I think it’s beautiful.