In what way might all films be considered documentary films? What does this have to do with photographs?

How films and documentaries are similar

Films and documentaries are a medium that impacts people on an emotional level. All films might be considered documentary films as both films and documentaries represent what the artist wants to show in a form of moving pictures, and the ultimate reason behind them is capturing reality and directing people’s emotions in a certain way.

Films and documentaries have the power to plant questions in people’s minds and the power to make people empathize with things, issues or even other people. Documentaries are meant to shine light on important issues that people might not have heard about before, they are also not limited to the area that the artist lives in and the issues surrounding this area, it could be an issue in a totally different country and the artist is bringing an outsider view on the issue and making it more noticeable.

All films and documentaries have to tell a story and storytelling is the main thing that differentiates good films and documentaries and bad ones. The reason why storytelling is important is that when it’s good it could impact the audience as they are going to relate to the story and sympathies with the characters and the issue shown.

Although storytelling is the main factor in creating a documentary or a movie, it’s not the only factor. Making documentaries is inspired by personal curiosity and it requires the person to be fully committed and spend a lot of time and effort, sometimes with no financial reward in the end.

Another reason why all films might be considered documentary films is that they both could be misleading, as mentioned in the reading (Currie) some documentaries push narratives that did not happen or did happen but not for the reasons shown in the documentary because when they do it would create a dramatic effect that wouldn’t have been there if they showed the real thing.

Documentaries are similar to film in the aspect of needing to get the perfect shot and keep trying until the artist gets the perfect shot. As shown in the screening (Capturing Reality) the director told the girl to walk through the village and capture the way men look at her then when she was done the director told her to do it again and focus on the faces so it would impact the audience’s feelings.

In conclusion I think that all films might be considered documentary films because they have a lot of similarities and they both tell a story in order to impact people’s emotions and feelings in certain way.

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