How to Evaluate a Documentary Film

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How to Evaluate aDocumentary Film
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Some ways documentary films convey arguments

• archival documents, periodicals, diaries,
  letters
• photographs, ephemeral films
• Ken Burns effect (panning over
  documents/photographs)
• interviews/talking heads (witnesses, experts)
• voiceover/voice-of-god narration
• editing juxtaposition of video (two different
  pieces of footage for example) and audio elements
  (voice and music)
• reenactments of events

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Documentary film that uses conventional
documentary elements effectively The Civil War
(PBS, dir. Ken Burns, 1990)

• A history of the Civil War in the United States
• Uses historical photographs, documents,
  newspapers, letters, diaries
• Uses Ken Burns effectpanning over photographs
  or written sourcesto entertain and focus the
  viewer
• Uses voice-of-god voiceover narration to
  advance the story and interpret historical
  sources
• Uses talking head interviews with experts to
  interpret evidence and provide conclusions
• Downplays slavery as the central issue of the
  Civil War overemphasized states rights as an
  issue in the conflict

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Excellent documentary film made exclusively with
historical footage The Atomic Café (1982)

• A film about living in fear of nuclear war in
  the U.S. during the early Cold War.
• Uses ephemeral films from the period from the
  Prelinger Archives (advertising, educational,
  industrial, and amateur)
• Uses juxtaposition of archival video and sound
  (both voice and music) to produce an
  interpretation opposite to the anticommunist view
  proposed by historical films it uses
• Uses no voiceover or talking heads beyond those
  already in the historical footage

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Documentary film that uses feature film elements
to interpret past events The Thin Blue Line
(dir. Errol Morris, 1988)

• A film investigating an old case where one man
  murdered a cop but another one was falsely
  convicted for murder
• Uses case documents, interviews with witnesses
  and the convicted man, as well as new evidence
  found by the director
• Interviews are highly stylized
• No voice-over narration
• Events of the murder are reenacted by actors
• Uses dramatic music by Philip Glass
• Convincing as a result of the film, the
  conviction was overturned

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Sample midterm question
A 1988 review of The Thin Blue Line in Variety
magazine stated Errol Morris has, in spite
of himself, made a film that succeeds both as an
objet dart and a nonfiction narrative. Visual
design, lightning and editing are impeccable,
with all these elements carefully planned in a
way entirely at odds with a technique of the
ordinary documentary. Explain why Errol
Morriss style seemed so at odds with the
documentary film tradition. What was his
pioneering style? How was his film effective as
an interpretation of a historical event?