Alice from wonderland tells us, she probably wouldn’t have gone down the rabbit hole had there been a documentary about it.....or would she?
Talking to a few people around made me realise, while movies get a generalised perspective of fiction, documentaries on the other hand can be more often than not looked at as the truth, or well, some version of it - and that’s what they’re most probably supposed to be. And hence arises the question - are documentaries trying to tell me the truth, a story, or a sale? Most of all, can I trust it?
For instance, the September Issue (2009) tells you the story of what goes on behind the scenes in creating fashion’s most popular magazine’s biggest issue - Vogue September issue, but it can be argued that more than that it also sells an idea about the ultimate boss in fashion - Anna Wintour, and subsequently Vogue. It’s not just about the workings of a fashion magazine, it’s about the working of an ‘influential’ fashion magazine - and we’re conveyed that throughout the course of it.
An interesting observation in these scenarios can be that documentaries like other art forms can also perhaps be more than one thing at a time, entertainment, education, a scam, an advertisement, a sales pitch or just a fever dream - anything you want them to be, given that you keep them at that, rather than treating an art form as the final and truest word.
An example can be, Norton’s two-episode documentary “The most dangerous town on the internet” based on cyber security and crimes which was also said to have achieved a dual motive of creating awareness about cyber security which was also conveniently accompanied by the fact that Norton has it’s own anti-virus/security software that tackles the same issues they talk about in their own documentary.
In this scenario, wouldn’t it make sense to say that the answer to the big question that’s the headline of this piece, lies in another question- what do documentaries mean to YOU? Or better so, what does the documentary you’re currently watching mean to you? Did you have fun, or did they rope you into a bigger scheme? Are they even roping you in, or did you just happen to see the conviction of a product, in the story of its construction?
The answers to these are subjective, but one thing remains clear, documentaries aren’t what they used to be, not only are they different but also bigger - not just with their production but with their impact. The obsolete lore of “documentaries are educational and boring” is not going to work anymore because guess what, documentaries are the future, and they are the answer.
All in all, it can be argued that the fact that this article is being written, posted and read are all in a way results of questions consumers now ask - whether that’s due to an attempt at informed consumption or sheer paranoia is irrelevant, or is it? I guess we’ll have to make a documentary on it to see it!
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