Some films, like Luis Bunuel 's Land Without Bread subvert this form by, for example, having sound and image tracks contradict each other. Such films are sometimes known as open texts. Voice over narration is rare. The goal of most direct cinema practitioners is to derive a film from the interaction with a film subject, without scripting, re-enacting, reconstructing, or shaping the flow of events. This foregrounds the presence of the filmmaker in the lives, actions and motives of her film subjects.
Direct cinema is often a compelling form.
It was this form which in the 1970s gave rise to a still ensuing discussion about documentary ethics, given it could intrude so easily into the lives of film subjects. How direct cinema articulates arguments is very problematic. Many critics think this form confuses the categories of argument and evidence. The interview-based documentary is the central model for contemporary documentary. Films like Rosie the Riveter and With Babies and Banners construct a sense of interviewees talking to us directly in an unmediated manner.