In the screening last week, we watched two documentary films, one short, and one feature length. So, obviously, the topic was on documentaries.

The first film we watched was called One Year Lease, directed by Brian Bolster, and is presented through a series of recordings of messages left by a landlord of a flat. I never really saw documentaries as that big a deal, and so it was interesting studying this topic, as I learned that there is so much more to them than just being informative. Yeah, I was super ignorant. But it was interesting seeing how this style of film was able to tell a story as well. One Year Lease focused on the topic of loneliness. The recordings of the messages left by the landlord indicate that she was lonely and simply wanted company. Through this, the director was able to add some form of character progression, even though technically there are no ‘characters’.

The second film that we watched was called Grizzly Man, by Werner Herzog. This film showed me that documentaries can also make a statement, and have controversy in their content. The message that Herzog tries to convey is simply that BEARS ARE WILD AND SHOULD NOT BE MEDDLED WITH IN THEIR NATURAL HABITAT. He does this by setting a dark tone over the whole film, and causing discomfort in the audience. By establishing the gruesome death of Treadwell at the very beginning of the film, the audience links every situation presented in the overall film back to his death. For example, in scenes where some of Treadwell’s own footage is shown, the audience is unsure of whether or not to laugh at the comedic value in them, out of fear of being disrespectful.