How often have you watched a documentary and completely believed everything that was shown in it? Or how often have you watched a crime documentary and become increasingly aware of your surroundings? Well, it’s time you learn not everything you see in the documentary is what happens in real life.
It's important to stress the fact no matter what documentary we are viewing, there is no component or a part that is safe from the 'creative' minds of the director and producer. There will be a small or sometimes even a major part of the storyline that will be altered to match the interest of the audience.
J.G. Ballard an English novelist, short story writer, and essayist, was of the opinion, “given the chance, human beings would bend any new means of communication to their will, turning truth-telling capabilities into convenient lies.” And Documentaries are the perfect way to shed light on this notion.
Documentaries are meant to shape authentic material or non-fictional factual material for purposes of entertainment, education, or even historical record. It brings about questions relating to realism in films. You question a meeting taking place- did it take place? Was it these same people sitting around that round table or were there different people?
According to British journalists, for so many years, documentaries have been considered with suspicion- it was professed fake. The producers and directors decided on the plotline of the story and went ahead with filming what they needed to grab an audience and get immense publicity. Therefore, swaying the truth minorly or majorly, in a way that captivated people was their best bet.
Makers operate the documentaries, to manipulate reality with effects that can be morally toxic. This toxicity arises from “A Film unfinished” where Yael Hersonski showed raw images that Nazis took, and staged, in the Warsaw ghetto that had passed through the machinery of ideological illusion making.
It is very troubling to regard how easily we can be deceived. But it’s also because of our consent to being fooled because we accept it and talk so much of it. The most thorough effects can come from rookies or young filmmakers who take on an almost wilfully indigenous attitude towards the deceit of making a film, recording their daily lives, and their friends in situations that take place regularly.
This is unfortunately not good on the field because creating something that is within the ordinary lives of the people is incredibly risky. People want to know about the lives of celebrities, events, or criminals just the way it is or they want to watch a movie or series which is out of their normal. Curiosity is a big factor in the audience when it comes to documentaries. Messing with the truth messes with the success of a documentary.
Let’s look at “look me in the eye”, which is restricted to the kind of heart-tugging voyeurism. SBS had said, “It’s guaranteed to make you cry.” But in reality, if one is lost and away from his/her loved ones, do you think anything that is part of the documentary will guide them to help? No, it wouldn’t. It doesn’t show any important discussions taking place, nothing about what could help the victim find help.
Therefore, both examples show you can’t really trust documentaries to teach you anything. They only bring awareness to problems or events taking place which we aren’t aware of. They need to be as truthful as one can make them.
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