IB Part 2: The language of documentaries

The language of documentaries

We as a group thought it would be very interesting to use various documentaries and to discuss how these portray reality.

We considered the following three documentaries:

1) Enron - The smartest guys in the room
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1016268/
2) Michael Moore - Fahrenheit 9/11
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0361596/
3) Michael Winterbottom - The Road to Guantanamo
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468094/

All these documentaries give their own view on reality and on newscoverage. It might be interesting to have a class discussion on aspects like bias, and manipulation. The Enron documentary discusses greed in large corporations and the impact that this has on society. Fahrenheit shows how George Bush Jr, the American government and the media severely influenced the post 9/11 era. The Road to Guantanamo is a dramatized documentary from the perspective of three British young men who were locked inside Guantanamo Bay for two years without trial. All three documentaries cover their topic from a very particular perspective. Aspects to consider in this light are:

- the diversity of the audiences
- overt and covert forms of bias
- layout and use of images
- deliberate manipulation of the audience

Internet assignement: students search the internet for critical responses to these documentaries.