Topic: Documentality #5 - Controlling the Narrative

Thumbs up Thumbs down

Re: Documentality #5 - Controlling the Narrative

Hey, I saw All Saint's Day! So there! smile

Thumbs up Thumbs down

Re: Documentality #5 - Controlling the Narrative

4 (edited by johnpavlich 2014-06-20 19:41:37)

Re: Documentality #5 - Controlling the Narrative

Thumbs up Thumbs down

Re: Documentality #5 - Controlling the Narrative

Thumbs up +1 Thumbs down

Re: Documentality #5 - Controlling the Narrative

Thumbs up +1 Thumbs down

Re: Documentality #5 - Controlling the Narrative

Thumbs up Thumbs down

Re: Documentality #5 - Controlling the Narrative

Teague's comment about how "if I can't believe a word you're saying, you're wasting my time" is really interesting. It's kind of the opposite of how I approach film. Film is inherently a lie, after all, so in most cases expecting truth is kinda futile.

"The Doctor is Submarining through our brains." --Teague

Thumbs up Thumbs down

Re: Documentality #5 - Controlling the Narrative

I get even MORE interested if I find the protagonist/narrator untrustworthy.  I also think upfront they sort of indirectly admit that everyone is going to see this story differently because of their perspective.

Eddie Doty

Thumbs up Thumbs down

Re: Documentality #5 - Controlling the Narrative

It is a question of what genre the film is claiming to be. We react to "real" events differently than we do fiction. The same shot of people jumping from a skyscraper will have a different feel and effect if it is in a 9/11 documentary as opposed to a new Transformers movie.

Thumbs up Thumbs down

Re: Documentality #5 - Controlling the Narrative

Speaking of, I think this episode needs a sequel about Herzog's "Ecstatic Truth."

"The Doctor is Submarining through our brains." --Teague

Thumbs up Thumbs down

Re: Documentality #5 - Controlling the Narrative

Thumbs up Thumbs down

Re: Documentality #5 - Controlling the Narrative

Eddie Doty

Thumbs up Thumbs down

Re: Documentality #5 - Controlling the Narrative

Thumbs up Thumbs down

Re: Documentality #5 - Controlling the Narrative

Fair enough, I just didn't know if there was a specific thing in SWT that triggered that response.

Eddie Doty

Thumbs up Thumbs down

Re: Documentality #5 - Controlling the Narrative

Re: Documentality #5 - Controlling the Narrative

"The Doctor is Submarining through our brains." --Teague

Thumbs up Thumbs down

18

Re: Documentality #5 - Controlling the Narrative

Part of what Polley's doing is putting the audience in something like the position she'd been in most of her life. You're getting all these different narratives from people, often very vivid and emphatic that this is the truth, and what do you do? All facts are skewed necessarily by the storyteller, including the documentary itself, and the reveal is her way of saying to us "See how that works?"

Thumbs up Thumbs down

Re: Documentality #5 - Controlling the Narrative

Eddie Doty

Thumbs up Thumbs down