Exploring the truth within Documentaries

To help prepare myself for my Final Major Project I have chosen to explore the truth in
documentaries. I have done this because I want to be able to provide my audience with a
Documentary that will tell the truth and provide them with reliable information. I am hoping
to learn how I can be un-biased in order to tell my story in the full truth.

According to Paul Jenkins who published an article on ‘brillianto.com’, a Documentary is a

film or television program that informs or educates its viewers about a particular topic or
issue. The term ‘Documentary’ is a broad term as there are many different types of
documentaries featuring different types of topics. However, despite all the differences,
there is one thing in common, the ability to tell the truth to the audience. Our Culture MAG
& Partners said on 07/04/2021 that due to the need of the public to be exposed to the truth
the popularity of documentary’s has increased dramatically over the past 3 decades. In the
story telling process of a documentary, it is important that the documentary maker tells the
truth as that is what the audience is expecting them to do however if they are making a
documentary about something that they have a biased opinion on it is less reliable.

The dictionary describes the truth as a ‘verified or indisputable fact, proposition or principle’
The truth about something is all the facts about it, rather than things that are imagined.
Stuart halls representation theory states that there is not a true representation of people or
events, but there are various wats that they can be presented so producers try to fix a way
of understanding people or events in the work they present. Representation isn’t about if
media twists reality as that implies that there can only be one truth, but in documentary's
there can be many meanings based on what the audience chooses to belive.

A documentary maker that s guilty of this is Michael Moore. For

example, he created a documentary in 2019 called Planet of the
Humans. It provoked a furious reaction from scientists and
campaigners, who called for it to be taken down. A letter written by
Josh Fox, who created the documentary Gasland and got the letter
signed by various scientists and activists urged for the removal of
the “shockingly misleading and absurd” film for making false claims
about renewable energy.

Michael Moore opens this documentary by having a variety of

people answer the question ‘how long does the human race have’.
By starting the documentary in this way it grips the audience in
right from the very start as it is something that ‘the human race’
worries about. This isn’t telling the truth as it is a large variety of
people who have different opinions and different answers and
none of them, like everyone else knows the exact answer to that,
we can only assume based on what we think, believe or the
information that we receive from different sources.
 We receive an insight to the story of the presenter of this
documentary, he describes how his relationship with the
environment developed and was very strong and positive from a
young age. By giving the audience so much information into his
personal life he knows that by doing this the audience is much
more likely to believe the information that he is giving them and
begin to agree with his side of the story as it progresses as they
trust him more as they are creating a connection to strengthen
their belief in what he’s saying.

Later on we see footage that the journalist has recorded himself at a conference he
attended about electric cars. In this clip he
doesn’t include interviews with all members of
the panel, in the clips with the members that
he did interview if you look closely when he
asks them a question and they hesitate or say
‘um’ he cuts it there and doesn’t include what
they say afterwards. This impacts the truth as if
the audience can see that by him not showing
the full interviews that he is not telling the
truth and he is hiding something. If I was to do
this If I asked a question one of the people
didn’t know then I would ask the other so that I
would get some sort of answer instead of
none, as by doing both of these thigs it makes
it seem like these people don’t know what they
are talking about or worse, lying to the audience, making them not trust the people on the
other side of the story and instead the presenter more without knowing the full truth. This
helps him tell story because the intention of this documentary is to prove that renewable
energy isn’t as good as we think it is so by making it seem like the people from the other
sides knowledge isn’t reliable it makes the side, he agrees with more seem stronger.

We later on see an interview set up with someone who

doesn’t agree that renewable energy is going to positively
impact our planets future. The difference with this interview
compared to the other is that these looks like it has been set
up previously and that the interviewee was aware that it was
going to happen so that they would be able prepare their
answers and look as though he knew what he was talking
about unlike the previous interview. This set up creates more authority as it looks as if it is
being filmed in a more professional environment than the other interviews. This makes it
look like one of the subjects is telling the truth and one isn’t based on the fact they are
receiving more information on one side than the other. This is not a reliable way of telling
the truth as the maker of the documentary is heavily pushing one side more than the other.

The majority of the interviews included in this documentary

are done in a vox pop style, at one point he asks a large group
of people from one protest the same question. First of all,
most of the people at this protest are going to have the same
opinion as they are all there protesting the same thing, and
also, he isn’t asking them scientific questions as these people
aren’t people with 100% accurate knowledge, they are simply
just people with opinions, but they are confident in the
opinions that they have.

However unlike in the Vox pops

with the protesters, in the interviews with the actual scientists
and professionals on the topic we can clearly see that the
footage has been tactically cut in places to make it seem like
they are hiding things as it looks as if they are stuttering more
and having to think about the answers they are giving.

He has done this again to make one side seem stronger than
the other, which isn’t providing his audience with the same
quality of information basically forcing them to believe in the
‘stronger’ side of the story more as he has made it seem a lot
more reliable than the other.

I believe that in this documentary Michael Moore is manipulating his audience into believing
one side of the story due to his editing throughout the Documentary. I do not believe that
this Documentary is telling the truth because of this. I think that if he had created two sides
both as strong as the other then he would have been telling the truth as they would have
both been given an even chance. He isn’t completely lying as we can see that he is including
some sort of facts however he is just telling what he thinks is true and what he believes.

A documentary that we can be surer is telling the truth is ‘Miss America’ This is a
documentary is Directed by Lana Wilson, produced by Tremolo Productions, and released to
Netflix and select theatres on January 31. This Documentary opens with Taylor Sat in her
apartment and looking through things from her childhood. From the very beginning we
know that this documentary is going to be us, hearing her story from her directly, not from
people she is close to, not her family, not from the press but from her raw self. Because we
are seeing her in a way that the press usually catches her makes us trust that we are going

to be hearing the truth right from the very start.

Despite her coming across so raw and honest, we don’t know if this is the full truth because
for all we know it could be staged as she could just be picking out the moments that she
wants us to see to make the audience believe that this is her true self and that it is the truth.

Going into the next scene we can see Taylor is

recording herself on Grammy nomination day in 2018
instead of the camera person that was previously
recording. This shows that Swift in this documentary is
willing to share moments that the public doesn’t
always get to see. Even if someone isn’t a huge fan of
Taylor Swift most people know of her fame so the
audience would be interested to catch a glimpse into
the exciting moments that we don’t always get the
chance to see making them believe that it is the truth
as they are getting to see her real reaction in that
moment.

After we see her react disappointed to the news that she just received it then cuts to her in
the studio, determined to write a better record. By seeing her say ‘I have to make a better
record’ to her then trying to do that, it shows the audience her determination and we see
her in her true form trying her hardest to do what she said she would do and because of this
we are more inclined to believe what she says later throughout the documentary.

Despite Swift telling her stories from her past to the camera but there isn’t any proof behind
it so theoretically she could easily be lying but because of the relationship that she creates
with the audience throughout the documentary we are much more inclined to trust her,
which could just as be as misleading as Moore’s documentary.

Over time I think that telling the truth in documentaries has adapted and changed. In the
Documentary ’in search of ancient astronauts’ made in 1973. In this Documentary there
isn’t any voice overs or b-roll footage, in this it is purely created from archive footage and
voice over. People at this time would have believed that all the information was true,
however in these days due to the way that the editing and filmmaking techniques have
developed documentary makers need to make sure
that everything is done to the highest quality to make
it more trustworthy.

I do not think that Documentaries always tell the full

truth despite this being their purpose. In cases when
you are creating a Documentary based on an interest
of yours it can be hard to be unbiased because you probably have an opinion on it yourself
therefore you are going to want to push forward the side that you agree with stronger, but
in those cases in order to tell the full truth it is important to give both sides a fair amount of
effort.

References
Media Studies @ Guilsborough Academy. 2023. Stuart Hall – Representation Theory –
Media Studies @ Guilsborough Academy. [ONLINE] Available at:
https://guilsboroughschoolmedia.wordpress.com/2019/06/12/stuart-hall-representation-
theory/. [Accessed 27 January 2023].

the Guardian. 2023. Climate experts call for 'dangerous' Michael Moore film to be taken
down | Climate crisis | The Guardian. [ONLINE] Available at:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/28/climate-dangerous-documentary-
planet-of-the-humans-michael-moore-taken-down. [Accessed 27 January 2023].
Peter Biesterfeld. 2023. Documentary Bias - Rearranging the Truth - Videomaker. [ONLINE]
Available at: https://www.videomaker.com/article/c06/18569-documentary-bias-rearranging-
the-truth/. [Accessed 27 January 2023].

Roland Denning. 2023. Can documentaries ever tell the truth?. [ONLINE] Available at:
https://www.redsharknews.com/production/item/6340-can-documentaries-ever-tell-the-truth.
[Accessed

d 27 January 2023].