Poetic, expository, participatory, observational, reflexive,
performative.
I can see how there can be subgroups of documentary film, as
the article says, but I’d argue that there is no documentary that is not (at
least slightly) all of these things. Mostly, many documentaries (at least the
ones I have seen) are largely expository and observational. However, I suppose
these categories can be formed to fit documentaries that are dominant in one
trait over the others.
This got me thinking about all the documentaries I’ve seen,
and just which category they might be in. To share, here are a few that are my
favorite documentaries.
Poetic: No one does it better than National Geographic; they
created a documentary called One Day On Earth which is essentially a beautiful
series of stories that capture the lives of people from all over the globe. The
most intense part of this documentary is the aesthetics; basically we get to
see every beautiful place and every touching story on earth (for one day). It
is a beautiful film with no greater purpose than to show us beauty. It cant get
more poetic than that.
As for expository, I have 2 insane ones, that are VERY
graphic, but also my favorite (perhaps because they are so shocking).
The first is a BBC documentary called Bulgaria’s Abandoned
Children. This is very dark and depressing, among other things. The journalist
Kate Blewett Travels to Mogilino, an orphanage in rural Bulgaria that
specializes in mentally/developmentally handicapped children. What she uncovers
when she goes there shocked the world. The children are left in very poor
conditions, and, since they are expected to be institutionalized until they
grow old and die (if they get to grow old, even children whose only disability
is blindness, they are given no child care at all. That is, the nurses and care
takers are shown to be giving them the basic needs for survival, but they are
completely devoid of any nurturing at all. Often, children are left in bed for
days, left on their toilet so diapers don’t need to be changed, and even some
injuries are left untreated. Aside from rampant neglect, some children suffer
abuse at the hands of other children and even caretakers. I would suggest
watching this, but only with warning that it is very dark.
The second expository film is again a literal exposition,
and it is completely horrifying. It is called Earthings, and it depicts the
terrific, systematic injustices that humans commit against animals. Of course
none of think that slaughter houses or tanneries are nice places, but even
expecting the worst I was still completely shocked. I don’t know how else to
describe it. They have inside footage of several slaughter houses (mostly in
the USA), as well as leather tanning practices, skinning of animals, breeding
and neglect of animals, and footage of animal experimentation. All of these
practices are excessively cruel and expose the lies about “humane” treatment
and/or slaughter of animals. Severe content warning, but it is something I
think everyone should see.
…more later…
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