Analysis & Reflection #3 – Question 2

As a student who studied ‘True lies’ last semester, it is really cool to step into the shoes of the documentary maker, and try to work with all the things I analysed while watching documentary films last semester. The reading entitled Documentary: The Margins of Reality talks of many of the misconseptions I had with the difference, and fine line, between fiction and non-fiction films. As it discusses, many people see any dramatization in a documentary style film as being a negative aspect – something that tips the film that is claiming to provide an insight into reality, over to the side of fiction. To this though, I say that documentaries claim to provide an insight into a version of reality. Everyone has their own perception of the world, and obviously, their own perception and veiws when it comes to issues, people, places, events, etc. This personalised view of things can be downplayed in documentary films, but that doesn’t mean the intention behind it is not still there. A documentary filmmaker will inevitably create the film that they see reflects the ideas and values that they want to push accross to their audience most. If this requires dramatisation, so be it. The use of dramatisation just hypes up the issue/topic, and helps portray the point in a way that might be more appealing and/or interesting. This is the main point I liked from the reading, and I feel like too many people have the idea that dramatisation in documentary just takes away from the non-fiction aspect, whereas I feel that it can definitely ad to the hype of the non-fiction aspect.