Documentary Change

A recent Times article reported a minor controversy over the fact that long and short documentaries would now be grouped in one Oscar category, and my small part in what was eventually an academy rules committee decision (“The Long and Short of Oscar Brouhaha,” by Eric Harrison, Jan. 16).

I hope it was clear, but I’m afraid it might not have been, that the suggestion that short documentaries be eliminated as an Oscar category was far from an attempt to shortchange filmmakers, challenge the worth of the award in the past or even second-guess the good judgment of the documentary committee. It was an old concept that I simply felt might be now worth discussing--a way to merge the award process into one category, short and long, and make the process more meaningful in terms of today’s distribution and exhibition situations.

The wonderful thing about documentaries, and one reason filmmakers and audiences are moving to them in greater numbers, is that there are so few rules or formulas as to length or cost or subject matter or style. A good nonfiction film will find the way to tell its story, and length seems to have very little to do with it.

CHUCK WORKMAN

Pacific Palisades