Blog Post 3

A single documentary can tell multiple stories depending on the perspective of the individual watching.  Some documentaries are more obvious and have a structured narrative they wish to illustrate.  However, there are others that are more abstract and can tell one story during one sequence of shots and then tell another story with the following sequence. 

Because documentaries have such power within the art itself they can create several types of realism.  In the reading for this week it talks about three types of realism that can be portrayed; physical, Psychological and emotional realism. 

Physical realism is a form of actuality we could say.  What is appearing on the screen is what actually happened in front of the camera without rehearsals or anything.  I think that this form of realism portrays the traditional idea of what documentaries are about.  Naturally we think that documentaries are films that show facts of life and things that are actually happening. 

Psychological realism as we have discussed in class is reflected in documentaries that actually document actors portraying certain emotions that were scripted by a director.  I remember we talked about how Hollywood movies can be considered documentaries because it’s an image document of people acting out situations in a story. 

Emotional realism I think can be related more to documentaries like the one we watched in class Man with a Movie Camera. This documentary illustrated multiple shots of mechanics, people and society in general.  Some parts had a good sequence to it that told a short story, but lots of times the shots created a type of emotion that was reflected on the subject of the individual shot.  The point of emotional realism is to create an emotional state in the audience. 

It would seem that documentary films as characterized as somewhat of a narrative structure or process that takes place and is documented on film.  However, as discussed in class and based on the reading it would seem that all films can be considered documentaries.  Mainly because they all films document something and isn’t that really what documentaries are, image documents of an event.