Documentary Narrative and Society

Awhile back, I had a conversation with someone who used to be in this program. They revealed to me that the reason that they left this program is that film does not affect society in any way. They said that they thought the study of film was completely pointless, because there was no way that society was ever going to change because of something in a movie. At the time, I wholeheartedly disagreed with what they said, and after this week of class, I wonder how they ever came to the conclusion that film is pointless. From the films that we have viewed this week, and the readings that we have done, I think that it is incredibly apparent that media heavily influences society. After watching the Why We Fight film, I thought about other examples of war propaganda from the United States. These pieces of media, including film, print, radio, cartoon, and others are what convinced the people in the United States that it was acceptable and necessary to go to war. Each of the pieces that we saw this week influenced the nation and the people that it was made for, and the time that it came from. In addition to this, the reading this week ( I think it was Nichols), discussed the fact that early documentary media was not truly documentary media, as it purported to simply show what was happening, and not make any argument about it. It was not until several years later, when films were made to support an argument that the documentary tradition was truly born. From this, I think that documentaries originated to change people's minds about the world, and the way that others think about the world around them. I think that most, if not all documentary filmmakers set out to prove a point, which will hopefully change one mind, or maybe a lot of minds. And hopefully, this will change communities, nations, and the world. We have historic proof of the power that documentaries can have over societies and nations. And we can see it today, in documentaries that are helping to change state and federal public policy, such as Blackfish.

That's the dream, isn't it? To inform people in such a way that minds and hearts are changed? I think so.