Truths' Relationship with Documentaries.

Many people look to documentaries for the facts, for the reality and unbiased opinion on a situation and generally assume that documentaries and the truth often go hand in hand, but that is rarely the case, as well we are humans so its inevitable that our personal bias and opinions we have developed or ‘inherited’ from the ones around us will influence the way in which we can interpret a message or what is being shown to us in formats like documentary, but it’s not just receiving the message that can skew or change its intended meaning, but filmmakers will often only use a selection of content and facts to support their point of view thus altering the truth the is projected to the audience. There is a range of documentary styles and every documentary displays the truth in a range of different ways and to different degrees. I will be analysing the different documentary modes as well as how the particular mode of documentary can influence the way truth is depicted within the film.

The first form of documentary and its relationship truth in a poetic documentary is often more subjective, where the viewer themselves apply their own meaning to what is being shown, although the viewer opinion has the ability to be influenced as well as manipulated but techniques employed by the filmmakers this can be anything from the score used during particular moments as well as shots following one another and how they juxtapose the previous another way filmmakers can influence the audience is by using a score that juxtaposes with the visuals on screen this can give off the feel that what is being shown to wrong or even the opposite to the message the filmmaker is trying to communicate this juxtaposition is usually what creates the story.

Poetic documentaries often have storylines and characters are undeveloped allowing the audience to create their own assumptions on the true meaning. This style of documentary often allows the audience to have more choice as to what the true meaning is to them and often changes depending on audience members.

LEFT:

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Right:

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Another form of documentary is participatory, this is where the filmmaker themselves are a part of the film itself which is the main reason as to why the truth displayed is often skewed or heavily influenced by the filmmaker themselves although they are resenting events as they take place, in this form of documentary the view often isn’t involved in interpreting the truth, storyline or message but are more or less ingesting what the filmmakers is making them out to be and it is then up to the viewer to trust the filmmaker or to ‘take it with a grain of salt.’ In participatory documentaries the filmmaker themselves often set out and have to either achieve something or have learnt something to gain the trust of the audience as they see the filmmaker has progressed through the film and they should do so as well.

But it can be asked that if the filmmaker themselves weren’t there would these events have taken place or in the order and way that they did, that is why in participatory although the documentary was influenced by something, the events that take place within the films itself often are influenced directly by the filmmaker or the documentary.

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The third form of documentary is the expository mode, this mode tends to feature content along the lines of nature documentaries and others that use facts, statistics and historical information thus allowing it to claim or position itself as the truthful form although the information is often skewed in the favour of the filmmaker and done in a way that will attract the interested of a wider range of audiences, by using facts, stats and data there is very little room to argue that these documentaries are not truthful as they often apply the facts and data to solidify their opinion or view which is often presented in the way of an argument, this is also seen in programs such as A Current Affairs, 60 minutes and many of the national geographic and David Attenborough’s animal documentaries.

Often when creating an expository documentary the filmmakers use a range of documents, archived footage and photos, as well as statements and quotes from credible sources to support their view, but this is where the truth in manipulated, when creating expository documentaries the filmmakers only use information and evidence that supports and reinforces their view thus only giving viewers part of the story, this is often done to keep the content more appealing to a larger demographic which helps spread their opinions and views.

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The final mode of documentary mode is the observational mode, this form of documentary has a stronger relationship with the truth as during the production the only influence the filmmakers can have is how particular things are being shot and then how those shots are then edited, although it still has the raw look and feel this gives the subject matter look real and free to do what it likes giving the feel of rawness and something that is pure which leaves filmmakers often conflicted as often times filmmakers themselves are wired to have their own influence and own touch to the final film, so letting go and allowing things to take place may be difficult not to interfere but this is what creates the ‘fly on the wall’ feel to the documentary that we do not affect the subject matter by our own or the filmmakers bias thus the observational style of documentaries [most of the time] have the closet and most effected relationship with truth. Unlike with poetic documentaries the filmmaker doesn’t use juxtaposition to influence the audience as they draw their own conclusions but instead are left to draw their own conclusions from what they are seeing.

To conclude, filmmakers create documentaries to not only bring awareness and the spot light to a particular situation or event, but to do this and make the documentary viable they have to alter reality thus often times altering truth to help sell the film to larger or sometime more specific audience as well as the invadable fact that the filmmakers bias will begin to affect the final product.