How does documentary figure public opinion?
Where To?
Lidija Spegar, 2017, Croatia
genre: observational/portrait
Where To? is a simple premise that pays dividends. Director Lidija Spegar interviews a (rare) female taxi driver in Zagreb and intercuts her testimony with footage of with her clients. The footage, candid-like but shot with the awareness of its subjects, provides a composite portrait of ‘s job, its stresses, tedium, and interpersonal connections.
But more than that, the approach gives a vox populi of Croatian attitudes toward their country. I don’t know that we expect a scientific rigor from depicting public opinion in documentary, which may have the drawback of overemphasizing the anecdotal over the general. But the presentation of public opinion can capture attitudes not widely shared in more official media accounts of opinion. It can also frame specific tension that the filmmaker deems particularly important.
However representative its sampling, Where To? captures a profound cynicism about Croatia’s government and its ability to deliver an economy that delivers for ordinary workers. It doesn’t offer a particular political solution (welfare state? or stepping back from the attempt to match Western Europe?) but provides a kind of cognitive mapping that I think documentary can be particularly useful for.