Documentary director Errol Morris (The Fog of War, Fast, Cheap & Out of Control) poses the question to the NYTimes: Do pictures provide evidence?
As I flip through unlabeled pictures from my grandparents' past, many questions arise: What is this gathering? What is that contraption in my great-great grandfather's lap? Who is that man my grandmother's looking at adoringly?
From similar unknowns comes the beauty of filmmaking and raw storytelling. For a narrative, the threads that weave into a story can be infinite. For a documentary, the threads must be carefully pulled in such a way that the yarn still holds strong without unraveling the entire tapestry. For a metaphor, one must know when to tie it up.