...here's your chance to say it again. Michael Griffin in the Star-Trib just
posted the definition of a "DOCUMENTARY" in response to the Isikoffs and Hitchenses of the world. Take notes, guys.
From its beginnings in the early 20th century, documentary film has offered a welcome alternative to routine journalism, not a reproduction of it. Rather than serving the marketing imperatives of commercial journalism, with all of the inherent biases resulting from its lack of depth, tendency toward sensationalism and adherence to superficial notions of "balance" (designed to preserve an imaginary "center" and appeal to the largest possible audience), documentary work explores issues and events in depth, building detailed presentations of facts and evidence that support a thesis or point of view.
Much of the best documentary work, work that has survived the test of time, exhibits the same characteristic we teach students to develop in essay writing: a clear thesis, supporting evidence, illustrative examples, a logical sequence of reasoning. A good essay acknowledges and addresses competing arguments or explanations, but doesn't give equal time to all views, no matter how weak or specious. The point of an essay is to build a strong argument.
Reviews and analyses of "Fahrenheit 9/11" should use the same criteria of evaluation. How strongly has it built its argument? What types of evidence or illustrations has it marshaled in support of that argument? What important issues does it raise?
Approaching the film in this manner requires that commentaries address the specific issues, facts and evidence that the film presents, rather than simply characterize the film in general terms or dismiss it with an ad hominem attack. [...]
Before commenting further on the merits of "Fahrenheit 9/11," journalists should educate themselves about the nearly 100-year tradition of documentary film.
By doing so they would not only see that Moore's work fits squarely within that tradition, but that it represents an elegant and provocative example of it, which will undoubtedly be studied in courses on the documentary decades from now as a skillful model of expository and rhetorical form.
Michael Griffin, chair of the Visual Studies Division of the International Communication Association, teaches a course on the history and practice of documentary film and video at Macalester College.
