I haven't watched that many documentary films to be honest. Michael Moore springs to mind when I think of these films and produced and wrote my favourite which we will come to shortly.
My problem with this type of film is that, and very much in Mr Moore's case, they become a political vehicle offering a single viewpoint.
The example I have of this would be Fahrenheit 9/11 which looked very promising and then quickly deteriorated into a Bush bashing film. Now don't get me wrong, I am not a George W. Bush fan but when a film simply bashes and bashes one person for son long it ruins the viewing. There is no counter-argument, no devils advocate and just a one sided opinion.
There are documentaries I do like. Super Size Me was a brilliant documentary about a man, Morgan Spurlock, who decides to eat nothing but fast food for every meal. Yup, Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner or if you are posh, Breakfast, Dinner & Supper! In addition he must take additional food if offered, for example, "Is that a large meal?" & "Would you like fries with that" - famous up selling techniques of the fast food outlet (so I've been told lol!!)
The film is highly informative, highly entertaining in both an amusing and serious manner. The outcome, a near death experience for the documenter - a surprise, not really, did the message work, nope!
My favourite documentary is by far the most moving I have seen.
If you are unaware of what influenced this film I have included this link bit.ly/mijh2E
The film investigates what happened and more importantly tries to understand why it happened. The cause of this tragedy is never really uncovered which is unsurprising as to understand the mind of someone can often prove a mystery.
The example I have of this would be Fahrenheit 9/11 which looked very promising and then quickly deteriorated into a Bush bashing film. Now don't get me wrong, I am not a George W. Bush fan but when a film simply bashes and bashes one person for son long it ruins the viewing. There is no counter-argument, no devils advocate and just a one sided opinion.
There are documentaries I do like. Super Size Me was a brilliant documentary about a man, Morgan Spurlock, who decides to eat nothing but fast food for every meal. Yup, Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner or if you are posh, Breakfast, Dinner & Supper! In addition he must take additional food if offered, for example, "Is that a large meal?" & "Would you like fries with that" - famous up selling techniques of the fast food outlet (so I've been told lol!!)
The film is highly informative, highly entertaining in both an amusing and serious manner. The outcome, a near death experience for the documenter - a surprise, not really, did the message work, nope!
My favourite documentary is by far the most moving I have seen.
If you are unaware of what influenced this film I have included this link bit.ly/mijh2E
The film investigates what happened and more importantly tries to understand why it happened. The cause of this tragedy is never really uncovered which is unsurprising as to understand the mind of someone can often prove a mystery.
It is within this film that I discover that as has happened throughout history, music or often now video games have been blamed for the tragedy. In this particular case Marilyn Manson, a generations lead 'Shock Rocker' was blamed for the tragedy. It was claimed by many that the perpetrators were influenced by video games, as a result of being bullied and by their love of "dark metal" such as Rammstein and particularly Marilyn Manson whom they were said to have worshipped.
As is so often the case these claims had no basis or proof and the bands were totally innocent of any responsibility.
In the documentary, Michael Moore asks Marilyn Manson what he would have said to the students at Columbine, he replies, "I wouldn't say a single word. I would listen to what they have to say, and that's what no one did."
If you have never seen this documentary then I urge you to see it. In addition Gus Van Sant's film Elephant also looks at the tragedy from a more conventional film making perspective.
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