‘Is It Possible To Accurately Represent Reality In Film?’
“...It matters very little what the facts are; what matters is what people believe. And when it comes to Cobain, most of what they believe is fabricated nonsense.”
-Buzz Osborne, Melvins
Documentaries are often assumed to be credible and filled with factual information; they do, after all, document reality. This is not always the case though. There are many factors that determine the reliability of documentaries: the editing, the director’s agenda, the film’s style, confirmation bias, and choice of interviewees, among other things. Documentaries are a representative medium, after all, and although they are able to give audiences insight into people and events that they were not able to experience first-hand, there is much ambiguity surrounding the truthfulness of non-fiction film. While it may be possible to inform and persuade people through film, it will never be able to accurately represent reality. By comparing two documentaries about Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, it will become apparent that there is still a blurred line between what is fiction and what is not.
Kurt Donald Cobain. Although his music was loved by some and hated by
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Although these types of conspiracies have been debunked in the past (Lincoln & Patten, 2015), the film is not to be discredited; it still holds convincing points based on interviews with people who knew Kurt as well as members from police, but mainly Tom Grant . Grant was the P.I. hired by Courtney Love to investigate Kurt’s actions and behaviour after he had escaped from rehab (Hunt, 2015). This documentary flows and feels like a crime-scene drama tv show (but due to the historical fidelity which is required by law in docudramas (as opposed to docufictions), the allegations made in the film must come from primary or secondary sources, or be backed up with factual evidence (Couch,
It is common knowledge that numerous documentaries have been made throughout the years. Various of the documentaries had very minimal effect on the world if any effect at all. While, plenty of other documentaries changed how someone, some movement, or some country is perceived by society. The later is what is going to be mentioned in just a little bit. The definition of documentary is “a movie or a television or radio program that provides a factual record or report”. This definition is quite important as it sets the basis needed to continue. Now it is important that it is established that, while documentaries almost always include truth in the documentary, they can portray the facts in whatever light they want. Sadly, this can cause a large
Their last concert was on March 1. Three days later Kurt was rushed to hospital after abusing drugs. He then had to go to rehabilitation, and after less than three weeks, he escaped and went back to Seattle, where he lived since marrying Courtney Love. On April 8, 1994, a thing happened that no fan will ever be able to forget. Kurt was found dead in his home, a suicide note at his side. In it he wrote about not wanting to make music anymore because he felt fake, and he said almost nothing about his suicide, if that is what it was. He died of a possible self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head. It was estimated that he died on April 5. This was the end of one of the greatest rock and grunge bands on the planet. In their honour, but mostly Kurt’s, the words “Come As You Are” were added to the Aberdeen sign, representing a title of their song.
Kurt is someone who expressed confusion and impotent anger of the youth into his music, which is why so many people praised him. He portrays such a tough front, and acts like
That leads me back to the question of whether there is truth in documentary or merely the makers views, for the sake of clarity in this essay I’ll go with Nancy Buirsk’s definition of documentary, “Documentary takes many forms, It 's a very elastic phrase. People like to
In this essay we will focus on major key success points of two bands that took over the world with their music and changed the perception of mainstream music. We're talking about Nirvana and Alice in Chains, two bands that came from same town, year and music genre and yet are completely different in their own respective ways. We're also going to shed a spotlight on both band's frontmens: Kurt Cobain and Layne Staley, both considered to be the genius song writers. We're going to compare their song writing through their most famous songs as well as their vocal and instrument skills. I choose to do this topic because I’ve always considered them a major turn-point
Kurt Donald Cobain was an American musician most famous for his role as the lead singer of the grunge band Nirvana. Kurt Cobain was born on February 20, 1967, in Hoquiam, Washington, but spent most of his childhood in Aberdeen, Washington (“Kurt Cobain”, 2015). Cobain was an only child until his sister was born when he was three, dethroning him as the baby of the family. He was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder as a child, and would often hide in his closet (“Kurt Cobain”, 2015). Cobain’s parents divorced when he was nine years old, after experiencing their fighting throughout his early childhood. When his father remarried, he began pulling away from him, believing that his dad always took his step-mother’s side, eventually growing
The medical examiner for Kurt's case knew Courtney a long time before she had gotten married to Kurt. Truth be told, they were actually pretty good friends and they used to go out bar hopping together. Since they were such great friends I think it would've been a better idea if someone else would have been assigned to deal with the examination of Kurt's body. Not long after this potential conflict was uncovered, he cleared out the King County medical examiner's office and accepted a position in a small town in Florida.The electrician that discovered Kurt's body was sent to the Cobain Mansion by Courtney to ensure everything was working properly. Even though nobody would have been at the manor at any point in the near future. This random task for the electrician makes me think that the only reason she had him sent to the mansion was so he could find Kurt's body. Courtney went on tour with her band "Hole" less than half a month after Kurt's passing. This wouldn't be worth saying, with the exception of the fact that she was his wife and that she should've been mourning his passing, not going on tour and playing shows. It is also a fact that Courtney Love is a vicious person by nature. Evidence of her vicious actions would be her tendency to threaten and assault individuals that would talk against her. She would attack anyone that talked down on her. Courtney's own particular father believes she is
Fatima, you did a great job in analyzing similar themes of Coover and Ruby’s work!! In addition, From Vérité to Virtual: Conversations on the Frontier of Film and Anthropology, is consist of an anthropological panelist that take into account a list questions regarding documentary truthfulness, collaboration, and visual representation. Michel Brault emphasizes the fact that “documentary hides its truth behind the image, a mere reflection of reality. Now we have even better reason to know that social reality camouflaged and dramatized itself for onlookers, and to even greater effect for the camera” (Coover 1933). That is, documentary has always struggled to overcome the tension between the subject and maker. As a result, “people now want to know
Kurt Cobain, singer and guitarist of Nirvana, was 27 when his heroin addiction caused him to take his own life. Throughout his teenage years, he experimented with prescription drugs and marijuana. He began using a drug known as Hash in 1984, which was popular in his hometown of Aberdeen, Washington. “In the summer of 1986, just two years after Kurt first tried
The uses of documentaries have evolved throughout the decades. With new technologies and techniques, documentaries often can have a powerful impact on the audiences. A documentary can manipulate the audiences to evoke a specific emotion to support its cause. Such emotions can be evoked to a particular degree. Documentaries also have the potential to change one’s perspective or even make a difference in an individual.
It is important to first know what a documentary is to fully understand why the development of technology has shaped them. From their conception documentary films have been about capturing life, about the “raw material of actuality.” (Beattie; 10) Not only do the documentaries tell us the story that the filmmaker is trying to tell, but also a deeper lesson that may be historical and or of social significance. As documentaries would now be considered mainstream media, they are seen as being the truth, that they are capturing life from unbiased point of view. “Of course, saying that a documentary representation makes a truth claim is not the same as
Exodus Recovery Center for drug detox and rehab, Kurt Cobain climbed a six-foot fence to escape the center, then boarded a plane and flew to Seattle on March 31, 1994 (Cobain). Kurt seemingly went off the radar without his wife, Courtney Love, knowing of his whereabouts leading her to hire a private detective (Cobain). The search for the twenty-seven-year-old Nirvana leader turned up empty until April 8 when an electrician installing a security system in Cobain’s home found Kurt’s lifeless body (Cobain). The electrician and police found a shotgun lying on his chest along with a suicide note placed in a flowerpot nearby, the same note printed on a tween’s shirt for the sake of “edgy” fashion. On April 10, more than 7,000 mourners gathered in Seattle for a public vigil where Courtney Love and Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic read aloud portions of his heartbreaking note. The frontman of the iconic band concluded his final goodbye to the public, his band, and his family by declaring “I don’t have the passion anymore, and so remember, it’s better to burn out than to fade away.”(Cobain). Kurt had struggled with depression and addiction for years, but in this final goodbye, he seemingly saw his suicide as a way to finally control his life, his
The subject of this writing, is on a man who changed music; a man on the level of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison. This individual is Kurt Donald Cobain from the revolutionary grunge/rock band, Nirvana. While some people would never consider Cobain to hold a major role in the shaping of our music and culture today, they haven’t taken the time to look around. Many people overlook the fact that music played a huge role in the lives of Americans during the 90’s. Someday history books will probably
Kurt Cobain (1967-1994) was one of the most inventive and ingenious musicians not only in the 1990s—but in all of the twentieth century. He was the lead singer and guitarist for the grunge rock band Nirvana from 1987 to his death in 1994. Along with bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl (who was the band’s third and final drummer) changed the concepts of hard rock, punk, and heavy metal: and brought it to mainstream media. Before his rise to fame, Cobain had a rough childhood from his parents’ divorcing to being bullied in school. According to Biography.com:
“Kurt Cobain was found dead of an apparently self-inflicted shotgun blast to the head.” (Cross, 2014). Cobain was at a raise during his time, he pushed limits into his music, creating a “grunge” style influencing the fashion and music industry single-handily. His band, “Nirvana” was the biggest and most significant band of his generation in the early 90s. He was only 27-years-old at the time of his death, but the question is what lead the “Nirvana” rock star to suicide? Freud’s psychodynamic theory of personality states the importance of early childhood development, and it could be said that childhood experiences could have possibly played a role in Cobain’s suicide. On February 20, 1967, Cobain was born to be the center attention of his family, he was the first child. At three-years-old his parents birthed his younger sister, that’s when things changed, and he didn’t receive all the attention as he used to. Around the age of nine his parent’s marriage went downhill and divorced, because of this Cobain’s psychological development would become affected into his adolescent years. After the divorced Cobain was never in a stable home, jumping from living with father to his grandparents, aunts, and uncles’ houses. According to (Cloninger, 2004), “It leaves a narcissistic wound and a craving for parental love that was never met”. In psychoanalytic theory Alder could describe him to be struggling with interiority within his childhood where “Fear of abandonment, undoubtedly from his