JESSICA: The mix is unavoidable, but so are all documentaries. They need to be shaped for narrative and emotional reasons. In many ways, Not Bad At All is less fiction than your traditional documentary, but the visual language is more similar to fiction film. BILLY: I believe the stubbornness in the genre distinction between documentary and fiction has something to do with the secret desire for movies to be real. For some reason (history perhaps) the realness of traditional documentary remains unchallenged, as long as it includes: talking head interviews, slow zooms into photographs, b-roll, etc. When a documentary uses a different set of formal elements, its validity instantly goes on trial. Why is a couple filming themselves talking until
Firstly, it is important to understand how the documentary form is best suited to illustrate the film’s theme. In order to do this, one must have an overview of the documentary style of filmmaking. Documentaries concern themselves with the “exploration of
This is just one of the numerous misconceptions portrayed. When this film won the Oscar for best documentary, it was not actually supposed to have been able to win – in general terms, a documentary is a non-fiction movie. Although it met the criteria of being a movie, it was most certainly not non-fiction. Another example is when Heston's "cold dead hands" speech, which leads off Moore's idea of the Denver meeting, did not
The issue of obesity in America is one that has been debated heavily over the years as health professionals advise people to count caloric intake and exercise, in order to maintain optimal weight. The documentary by Stephanie Soechtig named “Fed Up” contradicts these sentiments and gets to the root of the obesity issue in America. Although the documentary focuses on the the amount of sugar and unhealthy substances that are added into our food without the public’s discretion, the documentary reveals something so much larger about America’s industries and government as a whole.
Media is so powerful that many people in business and politics have long realised that documentary filmmaking is a powerful way to influence or persuade the masses as to which side they should take on certain issues. Although the media claim their documentaries to be neutral, subjectivity is always an issue. Like any form of communication, including journalism, documentary filmmaking involves interpretation and choice-making on the part of the filmmaker, and is therefore unavoidably subjective. You might set up a camera to record a "day in the life of a Year 12 student” and end up with some interesting footage, but until it is shaped and given meaning by the filmmaker, and until
A documentary is a genre of film that provides a factual report on a particular story, viewpoint, message or experience. In this essay, two documentaries, Bowling for columbine by Michael Moore and Made in Bangladesh by CBC news will be explored to show how persuasive techniques are used to make an audience feel a particular way.
The Documentary “Fed Up” talks about childhood obesity and how it has risen in the past twenty years. Food companies, advertising, school lunches, misinformation, and parents are part of the reason for this epidemic. Make no mistake, childhood obesity is an epidemic, per “Fed Up.” This documentary is filled with scientists, doctors and politicians, it appeals to emotion and logic by telling real stories. By appealing to people’s emotions, the documentary tugs on the heart strings and make the audience have real emotions towards this problem that is plaguing this country.
After watching 13th it didn't make me upset at all, it made me very sorrowful, to see some of the things that African Americans had to go through. I wonder how it would feel to be kidnapped and brought to another country, to be enslaved and then freed to only be, enslaved in a different way. Know that I have watched this documentary it oped my eyes on why things are how they are know. Everything that they said in the documentary was linked together one way or another, it’s like putting together a puzzle with a lot of pieces. One thing that really stuck with me from the documentary was when they were saying that, a lot of the african american leaders around the 1960 were either killed, imprisoned or fled the country and that's why there is not a lot of African American civil right leaders, because maybe people seen what happened to the civil right activist and didn't want the same thing to happen to them. After all I don’t blame them I would want to play it safe to. On the other hand I don’t feel
A documentary and a movie are two similar, yet different things. They both (re)tell a story, but have different purposes – most documentaries are made with the point to inform, and movies purely for entertainment. This means that certain parts of the movie may have
One of the most widely used documentary techniques is interviews. Interviews reflect opinions from different viewpoints creating an almost 3 dimensional story. Its helps the audience feel more engaged as it is coming from a person 's point of view who was involved in the events making it feel more realistic. The audience can be assured that the story is not made up. Interviews give a sense of realism. Man on wire is a good example of the interview style being used to reflect feelings of the time Petit was on his way to making his dream come a reality. The emotions at some point were exaggerating maybe because he is a performer. But this made us as viewers feel apart of the film being able to sympathize with the characters and storyline. Marsh uses a technique where we see the subject talking on screen but we do not hear the interviewer talking or asking questions.
6. What aspects of this film fit into the documentary film genre, and what aspects appear more purely propagandistic?
Our government has redesigned slavery as mass incarceration, creating an epidemic in our society. Examining Rios’s accounts in his ethnographic work Punished and the documentary 13 we see how the government has used racial coding and moral theater to restructure slavery into our everyday lives and how this new system affects the everyday lives of these marginalized people.
The entire documentary itself is a narration. Due to the documentary being in the format of a narration, it set up the entire film to incorporate anecdotes and other modes of discourse. Through the use of anecdotes of multiple activists throughout the entire film, specifically the one on Daniel McGowan, the viewer is able to get a good idea of how far these people are willing to go for their cause. For example, Daniel was telling his story of his last operation with the ELF, and he had to put gasoline around the entire house and in all of the vehicles which are hooked up to an explosive device. Daniel knew about the consequences of this action and yet he still went forth with it.
Enticing viewers’ with two colorful M&M’s that spell out “F-U” is a documentary called “Fed Up”. This documentary was written by Stephanie Soechtig and Mark Monroe in 2014 and it protests the food industry claiming they are to blame for the obesity epidemic seen in America. It suggests that the industry is increasing sugar content in food items, hiding it behind complex names, and heavily advertising products that contain high amounts of sugar. I noted that the documentary relied a great deal on the viewers’ emotions to convey its point that sugar is bad and sway the viewer to believe them.
This paper will provide a brief overview of the documentary, Awful Normal. The documentary follows the journey of Celesta and Karen as they face their biggest challenge, their perpetrator. On the last day of the documentary, they confront their perpetrator; this paper will discuss some of the key issues observed from this confrontation. As well, analyze where each of the women are in their own closure to their abuse and relationship to their perpetrator. Awful Normal reflects how much childhood traumas can psychologically scar or ruin successive generations especially if gone untreated or effective action taken to help the children abused.
In this essay, I will explain why a documentary is always more realistic than a fiction film. I will show my thesis by exploring elements that influence how realistic a film is: film editing and format, genre, and transparency. I will use the documentary of Armadillo (2010), by Janus Pedersen, and the fiction film of The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (1968), by Danièle Huille as examples.