Documentaries - Yay or Nay?

filmlaw74

Ever since the Blair Witch Project hype, documentaries/documentary style movies seem to have become an epidemic...
For artistic purposes I think that having a movie in a documentary style can make it more visceral. It can reel the audience in very easily if done well, but lately it just seems that this style is just being applied for the sake of it.

Third_Echelon

I saw a really good flim last night in this style called "Man bites dog"...

One of the best Ive seen in a while... It basically follows a belgian serial killer while he does his serial killing and the crew end up helping him...

Totally off the wall... but it was really good....

Cactus Col

It seems to be great for people working on small budgets, new film makers.

But like any style of film, as long as it'd done well then it's grand

but just because some do it badly ... is not really a reason to give up making them.

mycroft

Okay lets clear this up

Do you object to actual documentaries or documentary style filmaking?

I love the current outbreak of really phenominal documentaries that are getting a cinema release. One day in Sept, Hoop Dreams, My Architect, Documentary filmaking is having a second wind not seen since the end of the second world war. Also documentaries are one of the few things Irish filmakers do really well.

As for the quasi documentary film. you say;

lately it just seems that this style is just being applied for the sake of it.

Okay I don't think people come up with the idea for a film and then say "And lets do it in the genre of the fake documentary" This isn't whose line is it anyway and they're not Tony Slater and Clive Anderson.

I think people come up with the idea for a fake documentary about"X", maybe because they want to make a film on a low budget and this can be cheap and cheerful, or in the case of Christopher Guest et all, they come up an idea (a mighty wind, best in show, spinal tap) and a terrific cast and utilize the fake documentary format because it allows them the creativity to bloom.

A better question would be to ask, does the idea behind this film warrant a fake documentary? does it have the necessary material to fill a feature film? and can I have the name and address of the gob***** in McDonald who thought their witty fake documentary ads out at the moment would work? I just want to nail his feet to the ceiling and coat his head in BBQ Sauce. Then release the rabid starved jack russells

Bunnyefey

Third_Echelon wrote:

I saw a really good flim last night in this style called "Man bites dog"...

One of the best Ive seen in a while... It basically follows a belgian serial killer while he does his serial killing and the crew end up helping him...

Totally off the wall... but it was really good....

I love that film. I bought it before I'd even seen it because of all the good reviews I'd read and it lives up to all of them, but its a mockumentary( is that the correct word) like the Blair Witch. I want to see a real documentary on the day in a life of a serial killer. Hehe, im only joking before anyone jumps on my back and hits me with a baguette.

But I really like documentaries in general, be they on tv or cinema I always find myself drawn to things that seem to be based on reality.

davej

I think the subject of this thread is a bit misleading, anyway

I've seen a rake of documentaries in the last 2 years or so (it's only going to get worse come the IFI docu. festival!). In the last while i've seen Aileen: Life and Death.., Farenheit 911, Riding Giants, Supersize me and Capturing the Friedmans.

There is huge diversity in style and subject matter in just these 5 examples. Soon the common cinema goer will see the likes of Empire magazine sub-categorising documentaries. At the moment we generally only get to see the high quality ones. But I've no doubt that inferior ones will begin to slip through the net sooner or later as the movie industry tries to capitalise on this new "market".

davej

nadir

There is a new one coming out on afghanistan, cant remember the name now, but Ill be looking forward to seeing it.
Anyone know what its called. I know im being a big vague, but afaik its fairly well known in 'film circles'

Third_Echelon

the only ones ive heard of are 'osama' or 'in this world' i think it was called?

Miguel_Sanchez

'Osama' is a feature film and isn't done in the style of a documentary at all so it couldn't be that one - although having said that it is a very powerful film which people should see - although it's not exactly a 'pocorn and coke' kind of movie.

Also - someone mentioned Hoop Dreams among the 'current crop of documentaries'. Maybe you just saw it recently but it was made ten years ago so I don't think it counts as current. Although, again, it's brilliant. I'm just a nit-picker is all.