Sagan á skjánum: sögulegar heimildamyndir fyrir sjónvarp

This article discusses documentary films on historical subjects, in particular television documentaries, making an attempt to distinguish between documentary films and dramatisations or fiction films. After a discussion of characteristics of individual directors, their creative art and relation to evidence and the truth, the author contends that historical documentaries are halfway between two other intellectual products, historical evaluations and fiction. Following this, several factors affecting the creation of historical documentaries are examined which can exert pressure in opposing directions, especially research which underlies them and demands for an artistic approach and entertainment value. The arguments of sceptical scholars as to the value of historical documentaries under such conditions are explained, and counter-arguments presented. The claim is made that there are two characteristics which distinguish an historical documentary from a fictional film: active argumentation and loyalty to the best evidence available. Most historical documentaries deal with the 20th century, because they can be spliced together from older film footage. The article discusses especially the problems of making a documentary film about events, which took place before the days of motion pictures and photography, without dramatising them or acting them out to any great extent. The use of visual art to tell tales of former times is considered, together with use of landscape, guides, interviews, computer graphics and narration. An examination is made of historical documentaries in Iceland which could be said to have been spawned by television, looking at a number of filmmakers in this area: Einar Heimisson, Hjálmtýr Heiðdal, Margrét Jónasdóttir, Hannes Hólmsteinn Gissurarson, Erlendur Sveinsson, Baldur Hermannsson and Birgir Sigurðsson. Individual Icelandic films are examined, including Þjóð í hlekkjum hugarfarsins (A nation enslaved in its traditional thinking), which drew more attention and caused more debate in Iceland than any other historical documentary. The author ends with his own experience of producing documentaries, in particular of the three-part series on the Turkish Raid, describing the development of the project and ideas on use of visual art in it.