A documentary is a film or video examining an event or person based on facts.

Therefore,
there is a great importance in being accurate in documentaries. Exploring the importance of
the truth and how true are documentaries will help better me as a documentary maker as I
will be able to not only keep my audience entertained but provide them with the truth and
reliable information as well. I would like to learn how to create a factual and un-biased
production in order to present my chosen story in the full truth.

On July 19, 2021 the Dead Line released an article interviewing a documentarian Morgan
Neville. He discussed the reality of documentaries. He stated the point that “documentaries
are not real. They are a mere reflection of reality, subject to all the tricks, techniques and
producers may-or may not-bring to bear”. This means, now with the advancing of
technology and need to capture the audience the story’s being presented in documentaries
may not always portray the whole truth. He says “documentaries are not real” which in
some cases can be true, in order to keep the entertainment factor certain events can be
dramatized to add effect to the documentary and keep the audience entertained.

This reflects on the statement documentaries “are a mere

reflection of the truth” as the story the documentary is based on may be a true story
however the way it is presented could be over dramatized or very far from what really
happened. Though, there are different versions of truth from different people, meaning a
truth for one person could be a completely different truth for another due to different
experiences. Morgan Neville said that it is easy to have an overwhelming sense of having
witnessed the truth after watching a well-crafted documentary. This means that the crafting
of a documentary can change the whole way it is perceived. A well-crafted documentary full
with footage and what the views could think is the real truth potentially could be just a
reflection of the person or event, leading the audience to believe everything they have
watched.

It isn’t uncommon for TV documentaries to be accused of distorting the facts or even lying
about certain people or events. Wildlife documentaries have recently became suspects of
bending or changing the truth. A cameraman who has worked on some of Attenborough’s
first programmes said that when travelling with the crew what surprised him most was how
many animals, they took with them when they travelled. He said that to anyone in the who
works in the business the techniques used to capture the incredible shots will be of no
surprise, he also said that you can’t make that sort of programme without an element of
sleight-of-hand.
 For the audience view these types of programmes
they are most likely to believe all the footage they are shown is raw footage of animals in
their natural environment however that is not always the case. For example, a shot of a bird
swooping into a lake that cuts straight to the bird underwater picking up a fish was set up,
another shot that surprised the cameraman when working with Attenborough was the clips
where the audience is shown deep inside an animal burrow are most of the time studio
recreations. Whether this is lying to the audience or not can be controversial as they are real
shots; they have just been set up.

An article was released on the medium talking about the controversial screening of the
documentary Vaxxed. The documentary screening at the Tribeca Film Festival was cancelled
due to mixed opinions about how true the topic really is. The documentary alleges a Centre
for Disease Control: cover up of the debunk vaccine and autism link. It vindicated what
scientists have been saying for a number if years, Vaccines do not cause autism. The
controversy of the decision to accept then kill the documentary raises many important
points. This particular episode leads us to consider how directors can choose to represent a
point of view, which challenges the viewers to re-evaluate the preconception’s and
misconceptions about the word Documentary. In the article it mentions how the
documentary Vaxxed captured a lot of public attraction not only for being involved in a
famous film festival but because it speaks to ethical dilemmas that aren’t so easy to unpack.
It states that the man behind the creation of the documentary is, not surprisingly, the
source of most of the controversy.

This proves the point that when creating a documentary,

you have the power to rely on your own personal opinion to create a whole production and
present to the audience your own thoughts on the truth. The main concern that the
documentary Vaxxed left was the acknowledgement the polarizing and deceptive biases of
the director Andrew Wakefield. When producing a documentary, the last thing that you
should be is biased however, many filmmakers argue it is impossible to present one without
the perspective of the director. Many people’s opinions were swayed by Vaxxed but not by
the facts but the bias points used to convince the audience everything they were being told
was real. This leads to the question if any documentary is real, or are the all lead by the bias
of the directors.
In 2005, a documentary about the journey of emperor penguins and the sacrifices they
make for there young made an entire nation simultaneously gain a love for the animal. The
documentary filters through the prism of human friendly concepts such as love and family,
though actual penguins do not get married and settle down for life. Despite March of the
Penguins implies that most emperor penguins cheat on their partners, they still applied the
correlation of human relationships to the ones of penguins. The issue of the documentary is
the criticized voiceover, it takes a fascinating nature documentary and grafts it into a phony
“love conquers all” parable. Not only that it also doesn’t reflect actual penguin psychology,
it also sugar coats what penguin life is actually like.

The film doesn’t completely ignore a chick’s death in

Antarctica’s waste land, it doesn’t make it clear just how common incidents like that are.
The British Antarctic Survey notes that many chicks die of starvation, which isn’t shown in
the “heart warming” documentary. Though the film isn’t full of distort lies, it mainly covers
the better side of penguin life for the audience to connect to. The documentary is however
based off a truth in rose tinted glasses not showing the brutal life many penguins can
experience.

A more recent documentary that was released in January 2020 that attracted a lot of
viewers was Cheer. It is an American sport docuseries that aired on Netflix, it focused on the
life of college cheerleaders, it showers their everyday life and family to competition training
and competitions. The accuracy isn’t questioned as much in these styles of documentaries
as it is filmed in current situations. However, Hunter who was part of the show says that the
show was an accurate representation but is also had “fake drama” for entertainment value.
He starts it shows the talent and everything cheerleading is about.

Though the docuseries is a reality documentary so

there is going to be drama, the drama equals clicks and that equals money, so there is
surprise the drama and events are dramatized. Hunter said the “overall, I think that the
show “Cheer” accurately displays the everyday ins and outs of cheerleading.” Many people
could agree with Hunters statement, however they could also not depending on there own
experiences. Overall the reality docuseries Cheer is seen as a more reliable show for telling
the truth and showing what it is really like to be a competitive college cheerleader in
America.
Telling the truth in documentaries has changed over the years as documentaries and
technology has developed. The more advanced technology has got; the footage and archival
footage has improved making what is being shown more believable. This allows the
producers to bend the truth or even lie and the audience may not even question it, it is easy
to believe everything that is shown to you. Like Morgan Neville said “documentaries are a
mere reflection of reality”. They show and tell stories and events but with the producer’s
twist. This because the producers have the power to rely on their own personal opinion and
create a bias off that. However, that isn’t always the case, some docuseries are based just
on the reality but still dramatizing the events to keep the viewers engaged. For example, the
Netflix series Cheer, the show was based on the reality of the sport though Hunter,
someone who was part of the show, said certain parts were dramatized to keep people
watching and engaged. To conclude there is not straight answer to whether documentaries
are truthful or not, it depends on events and the person producing the programme. Many
people have different opinions on whether they believe what they are being shown or not
which leads to the answer that it is up to everyone’s personal opinion.