Pete February 9, 2017

What is Documentary?

 

The documentary film no matter it styles is a powerful way for a filmmaker to put forward their point of view – they are also very successful on how they influence the audience and how they can even influence how history is remembered. It is said that the victors write history and also in the modern world filmmakers write it to.

The film maker can put forward any story or theme in any way he chooses; through the story and script and how the film’s edited, and the narrative presented to the audience. By their nature films are believable and real to an audience.

Take the early observational documentary Nanook of the North after watching the film I was surprised (perhaps naively) that most this film was constructed and staged by the film-maker – if it seems real to me in today’s modern world, it must have been viewed as absolute truth by the early cinema-going audiences.

Combs & Combs in Film Propaganda and American Politics: An Analysis and Filmography say “To classify a film as propaganda does not require demonstrable proof that filmmakers deliberately intended that a movie contains a propaganda message. Rather a film story emerges as a propaganda message if advocacy is sought and political learning is embedded in the body of the picture.” This definition is can be applied to most films made, which are documentary based or factual in their original story.

Perhaps one of the most telling of how film can influence the audience and the overall reflection of history the Odessa Steps sequence in Battleship Potemkin; while this section is famous and influential in it use of editing and montage to enhance the drama of the scene it is also added to the film for dramatic effect. There was no massacre on the steps but many now believe this to be a real piece of Russian history.

I have watched or rewatched several films over this section of the course and I have grown a little cynical that can I really believe anything that is put in front of me?