Reflective documentary

1. REFLECTIVEDOCUMENTARY

2. What is a reflective documentary?
◦ It’s a style inwhich is usuallyassociated with moreexperimental documentaries.
◦ At the simplest level the film may makeno attempt to hideaspects of its construction, e.g. showing camera menand workersin the background.
What yousee is what youget.
◦ Inexperimental documentaries, the viewer is often just as interested about how the film is constructedas they are the actual content.

3. Nick Broomfield
◦ Best knownfor his reflective style of documentary making.
◦ Heoften films with minimalcamera crew, most of thetime just himself and a single cameraman, this makesthe documentaries seem more
personal.
◦ Hehas been a great influencein thedocumentary world, as lots of film makershavebeen inspired to do what they do because of his
reflective techniques.
◦ Thebest knownexamples of his workare Kurt&Courtneyand Biggie &Tupac.
◦ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuNs3FSteN8

4. Louis Theroux
◦ Another well knownfilm makerthat creates reflective documentaries.
◦ Know for his controversial methods, as he presents in front of the cameraand is sucha casual interviewer.
◦ Sometimes he takes part inthe activities that heis documenting on, so to get aninside look, but he still remains slightly detached and
impartial to the topic at hand.
◦ Hetackles irregularcases such as prisoners, porn stars and prostitutes.
◦ Examples of some of his pieces of work are“When Louis Met Jimmy Savile”, “Louis and TheNazis”and most recently“Transgender Kids”
◦ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeP78RHGLPg

5. How reflective documentaries engage their audience
◦ Theaudience areable to become more aware of the problems at hand,from seeing theproblems that the film makerfaces while the film is
being made.
◦ Thesetypes of documentaries tend to bethe most truthful,as they always focus onrealism and try to show things exactly how they
happen.
◦ Thesedocumentarieshave verylittle, if any, editing and special effects on them before being shown to the public.
◦ However, as a film makernarrates over thedocumentary and addresses the specifically, the viewers opinion can be easily swayed to that
of the film makers.