Stella Bruzzi criticized other theorists' views on documentary making in her 2000 book. She thought that categorizing documentaries into strict modes confined creators and made it impossible to realistically recreate reality. Steven Barnett's "Disneyfication" theory proposed that less intellectual, more entertaining documentaries were being produced for television to appeal to mass audiences and be cheaper to make, replacing more serious documentaries. Gordon Quinn expressed that documentary filmmakers have an ethical responsibility to tell the truthful story and be accurate in their portrayals, though some recent documentaries have been criticized for manipulating subjects or situations for drama over truthfulness.

1. Criticisms of Documentary
Theory
Gareth Daniel

2.  In 2000, Stella Bruzzi published the book
‘New Documentary: A Critical Introduction’
which in part criticized Bill Nichols, John
Grierson and Andre Bazin’s theories and
opinions on documentary creation. She
particularly criticized Nichols for thinking
that film makers were ‘trying’ to replicate
reality, aiming for as close a representation of
the real as possible and were therefore failing
in their efforts. In her opinion this
undermined the caliber of documentary
creators. She thought that the classification of
documentaries in to only six modes was
unnecessary, as many would blur the lines
and could be fit in to 2 or even three
categories without having a dominant ‘mode’.
She found that the modes system didn’t work
and that documentary creators should be free
to make a documentary with whatever they
saw fit without regulations as to what is
considered a ‘real’ documentary.
What did she do?
Criticised other theorists views
on documentary making. She
thought that the categories
confined creators and made it
impossible to recreate reality.
Stella Bruzzi

3.  Steven Barnett’s ’Disneyfication’ theory looks
at the state of documentaries being put in to
the public eye, specifically on television. The
theory states that the quality of content in
documentaries is lessening in intellectual
quality and gaining more entertaining
qualities to make them more attractive to a
mass audience. Steven believed that this was
being done to appease the audience, as this is
the type of content already being released on
mainstream television, but also for the
organizations behind the creation of such
products to cash out by making an overall
cheaper product. The theory also states that
the showings of documentaries of actual
importance is declining, reducing the
saturation of ‘real’ documentaries on
mainstream tv.
What did he do?
Disneyfication Theory
The theory that less serious,
dumbed down and cheaper
documentaries are being made
to entertain the audience that
accepts this as the norm.
Steven Barnett

4. My thoughts on the
theories and criticisms
presented tome.
My Opinions on Disneyfication
 In my opinion, Steven was certainly on to something when
composing his theory. Although this was assumed from US media, it
is clear that in the UK modern television is certainly saturated by a
lot of documentaries of varying quality and content. The reason why
his theory seems so real is because there are many documentaries
that I have watched on television without realising they were
documentaries, giving merit to his theory that the majority of newer
documentaries are not ‘true’/ quality documentaries and are simply
there for quick entertainment.
My Opinions on Stella’s Objections
 Stella’s objections are quite sound in that they are quite true and
very modern. The idea of allowing people to think outside the box,
rather than categorising people’s ideas in to particular groups just be
called a ‘real’ documentary certainly seems less ancient and more of
a modern approach to documentary theory. In my opinion her
objections are completely founded, although the idea of not having
these ‘boxes’ by which to control documentary begs the question;
what would modern documentary be without modes, types, codes
and conventions?
Views on Theory

5. The Ethics of Documentary Making
Gordon Quinn to IndieWire: ‘We as documentary
filmmaker, I feel, have a responsibility towards
ethics’. ‘ You owe your audience to tell the truth
to get to the bottom of the story & to be
accurate.’
In my opinion this shows a lot about
documentary makers specifically. When Quinn
for example feels a moral duty to create content
that is truthful and would therefore be filmed
and edited as faithfully as possible. However, as
we have seen in more recent years, some
filmmakers seem to lack this type of moral
judgement, instead finding drama and viewing
figures more important.
Ethical Issues
Disneyfication Theory
The theory that less serious,
dumbed down and cheaper
documentaries are being made
to entertain the audience that
accepts this as the norm.
Gordon Quinn
Ethics

6. Recent Ethical Criticisms of Documentaries
 As mentioned in the previous slide, certain
filmmakers decide to bend the rules of ethics
in favor of making interesting television. A
highly controversial recent documentary
series was ‘Benefits Street’ which saw the
residents portrayed as drug addicts,
alcoholics, criminals and most importantly
benefits scroungers. After the show aired
there was mass controversy surrounding the
origins of the documentary. When the
residents were interviewed they said that they
were lied to and that the documentary was
supposed to be about the tight knit community
which is only featured in a minor way in the
final product. From this example, although
quite simple, we can see how the ‘intended
purpose’ can be manipulated by the
filmmakers with no penalty other than a
scalding from the press.
Recent Controversy