Intro to Docos

Craig Hight writes about the state of the Documentary and its dynamic changes over the years. His title suggests that theorists studying documentaries have struggled to keep up because of all the ways the documentaries are being filmed and distributed. Phones, DSLRs, Webcams, Internet, USBs. The possibilities are endless. Moving, Still, Animated. All valid within the documentary. If we’re keeping up with structures of documentary I’ll just list a few of my favourite types.

First of all I just want to say that I love documentaries. Something I’ve always loved about non-fiction that fascinated me as a kid. But we can’t just assume documentaries are based on fact-giving. When I mention documentary people often compare them to a Encyclopedia and tell me it’s this in video form. No. Well not entirely no, there certainly can be documentaries like this but you need a lot of visual stimuli to hold a viewers head up. My favourite documentary produced on proper over-the-shoulder TV camera crews are anything done by Louis Theroux. His ‘fly on the wall’ type of  documentaries places his quirky, yet understanding personality into communities and areas that the average person wouldn’t find themselves in. Such places include…

-Brothel
– Neo Nazi camp
– Westboro Baptist Church

My boi

VICE do amazing web-distributed documentaries. Personal faves include the Japanese cannibal, visit to North Korea and the Suicide forest.