What really is a documentary? You’ll be surprised at how elastic the definition of a documentary is. ‘A documentary film is a nonfictional motion picture that aims to ‘document reality’ primarily for the purposes of education or maintaining a historical record.’ Now that’s a textbook definition. And there are a whole lot of people who would argue otherwise. It’s been increasingly difficult to define documentaries. And although in a traditional sense a documentary is about telling the truth it isn’t really that simple. It’s about your perception of what the truth really is. It’s about the story that you want to tell. And thus, you can say that a documentary is a subjective treatment of reality. Now, what isn’t a documentary? Something that doesn’t answer or ask any questions, something that doesn’t tell a story from start to finish. If you’re just thinking out loud about your day, although it is the reality it’s definitely not a documentary much less a successful one. But if you somehow find a creative way to tell that story then voila you got yourself a documentary.
When you hear the word documentary what do you really think of? Are you from the lot that groans in boredom or squeals in excitement? Chances are it’s the former. And you’re not to blame. The entire point of documentaries has been to inform and educate. And thus it naturally tends to be informative in nature. And often informative is associated with boring. Information doesn’t sell as quickly. Entertainment on the other hand though sells like hotcakes. And documentary filmmakers have caught on to that. The way documentaries are made has changed drastically. Documentaries are made in a very film-esque way. One of the few recent examples would be ‘the social dilemma’, and ‘Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes’ which is a series.
With DFF right around the corner, what does it even mean? Documentary Film Festival is an annual flagship festival of the Mass Media Department of Sophia College For Women. It is headed by the Film Society. The purpose of this festival is to give an opportunity to the students of the department to understand the making of the documentaries by exposing them to various kinds of documentaries. DFF also provides the students the opportunity to interact with experienced filmmakers and talk about their journey in filmmaking.
For DFF 2022, we will be discussing Supermen of Malegaon, My Name Is Salt, A Rifle and a Bag, and The Hour of Lynching: Vigilante Violence In India.