Former Documentary Hater Gives Some Documentaries a Chance

Y'all (whoever is reading) have no idea how happy I am to be posting again. 

So, before we started working on the documentary projects, we watched a couple documentaries in class. Good news is that I actually like documentaries now! In fact, I actively seek them out these days. Character growth!

I Think This Is the Closest to How the Footage Looked

 

This was the first doc we watched in class. It was actually such a revelation. Being completely honest, I used to be really ignorant about documentaries and thought they were just boring nature docs about polar bears, but wow this completely changed my views on docs. I Think This is the Closest to How the Footage Looked was made entirely through inanimate objects (making it unlike any documentary I’ve ever seen), and it’s genuinely such a stirring story. I just loved how this doc was able to pull emotions out of basically everyone in the class through such an unconventional storytelling method.

American Promise

This one was definitely my favorite. I thought the subject matter was so interesting and the amount of work that it must have taken to edit it was probably insane. I particularly liked how the doc was structured, typically a narrator would be used for a production like this, but using the interviews to make the piece flow was great. As I was watching it though, I was a bit turned off knowing that the directors were also the subject’s parents. I don’t think the bias was too apparent (in fact, I think they included scenes where they definitely don’t come out looking great) but it was still somewhat noticeable. Overall, I think American Promise did a great job shedding light on a subject that just isn’t talked about often.

Exit Through the Gift Shop

Yeah this one was very good. The way the tone of this piece shifts is so so so cool. The implicit signaling of themes, especially towards the ending was so clever. I honestly don't even think the point of the documentary even clicked for me until it was over and we discussed it in class (I promise I'm not media illiterate...I think). After viewing, we had an almost hour long discussion in class about the meaning of art, what is and isn't art, etc etc. It was such an eye opening discussion. Honestly it may be one of my favorite school-related experiences. 

Abstract

This was more like the documentaries I would usually see. I liked how it used some more stylistic approaches for the b-roll (animation, staged footage, etc.) It was a clever artistic method for an...artistic piece. Yeah, I don't really have a lot to say about this one but I generally loved the b-roll!

NYT Op Docs

Oh my god I watched so many of these. First of all, I think its awesome that the NYT amplifies the voices of independent filmmakers. The subject matters of some of them that I watched were so interesting, just a bunch of stuff that I had never heard about before. I particularly loved Visible Mending. It just felt so warm and comforting. I loved the use of knitted animals to represent the interviewees (the doc is about the healing powers of knitting) and the use of music and stop-motion. I ended up watching so many of these just cause they were all so short and engaging. I loved hearing all the stories that were told.