Documentary Mini Task

1. Documentary Mini-Task
A documentary is a genre of film that shows the director/producers interest in a particular subject
which shows the audience different views such as ethical, political and societal views.
Documentary’softenfeaturethe use of official documentsthattell the truth or have it presented in
the documentary film. The majority of documentary’s will often feature a narrator or interview to
either talk about the subject or to seek out and give more information to the audience.
Expository Documentary
In an expositorydocumentarythe audience isconstantlyguidedandtoldwhatisgoingon within the
film with the voice of voiceover or actor/interviewer narration. These are often used to show the
subject within the documentary without showing an opinion or bias from the narrator or
actor/interviewer which allows the audience to decide their own thoughts, views and opinions on
the subjectmatter.Inour class we watchedthe documentary
‘We are the Lambeth Boys’ which shows the day and night
livesof teenagerswhoregularlyvisited the same youth club.
This featured a narrator to inform and identity to the
audience what was going on within the media text. In
addition to this an example of another expository would be
Planet Earth where David Attenborough talks about animals
in their habitats as a narrator as well as informing the
audience of various facts/statistics about the animal.
Observational Documentary
Observational documentaries provide a non-opinionated view on the subject. These films often
feature film with all audio being diegetic to the film other than possible music overlays at certain
moments. They primarily show the audience the reality and truth about the subject without
featuringanarrator or interviewertofocus on a
particular interest point within the subject. In
our lesson we watched the documentary ‘High
School’ that was produced in 1968 with the
FrederickWisemanbeingthe producer,director
and editor of this documentary film. Another
example of this type documentary is Armadillo
which is a Danish documentary about Danish
soldiers before they start their six-month tour
inthe Helmandprovince,Afghanistan. This film
was premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in
2010.

2. Interactive Documentary
Interactive documentariesoftenshowthe subject of the documentarywiththe use of interactionsof
interviewees,presenteraswell asthe audience insome cases.Ininteractive documentaries the text
is often manipulated through editing to focus on certain interests in documentary. Furthermore,
there are also arguments/agendas presented by both the interviewees as well as the presenter.
Interactive documentaries can sometimes be criticised for manipulation and
misinterpretationof the media text. In class we watch ‘Louis and the Nazis’ a
documentarywhere LouisTheroux interviews and captures the everyday life
of neo-Nazis in America. In addition to this
another example of an interactive
documentary will be Ross Kemp on Gangs
where Rossinterviewsandfollows the lives
of gang members as well as interviews and
followingthe livesof victimsof gang related
crime.
Reflexive Documentaries
In reflexivedocumentaries the conventionswithinthe subjectof the documentaryare oftenexposed
by the film-maker. These conventionsare oftenshowedby constructed editing and ordering to also
experimentwiththe conventions.The footage of these documentariesshow everydaylife in subject
matter that is arranged to often used as a foundation
for the film-maker to experiment with. There are few
of these documentaries around however in class we
watchedthe firstpart of the ‘Powaqqatsi’whichshows
the conflict and traditional ways of life in third world
countries. This trilogy was directed by multiple
directors with each film having years between them.
Performative documentaries.
Performative documentaries focus on the emphasis of the subject matter rather than the content.
Duringand in-betweeninterviewsaboutacertain detail there will be re-enactments showing what
happened sometimes with the interviewee speaking over the re-enactment as a narration in most
circumstances. Furthermore,these documentariesofteninvoke/present the expressive, evocative,
subjective,stylisedandvisceral manners. Inclasswe watched‘The ThinBlue Line’whichwasabouta
capital murder case in Dallas that includes interviews with the witnesses of the crime and people
who worked on the case during the court hearing. Due to the presentation and the views on the
case.Another performative documentary is Air Crash Investigation (aka Mayday) is a documentary
that includes interviews with victims, first hand witnesses and investigators about the air craft
crashesand problemsthatoftentake liveswiththem.Duringandin-betweensthese interviewsboth

3. CGI re-enactment and normal re-enactments are
featuredshowingscenesfrombefore, during and after
the fault/problem that can lead to air craft crashes and
accidents.
As a filmmakerandphotographerIhave the view andsayingof ‘See the world for how it is, not how
we want to see it’. As the heavy manipulation of both media and photography text often lie about
subjects then these are presented in bias media corporations. In the media factual text and truths
can be lied/manipulatedabouttomake the new versionof the textseemlikethe truth.Forexample,
a recent story was how much the UK pays to the EU. This was stated as £360 billion where as in
matter of fact we get over half of the back from the EU in return.