Evidence and Facts: The Intricate Webs in Documentary Filmmaking

“Documents are factual; documentaries are evidential. What constitutes evidence, and how do documentary filmmakers utilize it? Facts provide information but do not necessarily serve as evidence” [Page 97]. My points of focus for Nichols’s read, because I see facts as undeniable certainties such as ice melts and fish swims and evidence as the web that connects all the facts to form a theory, knowledge or a story. With that there is a heavy importance of gathering evidence even if the facts are known and example from Nichols read seems to express this concern.

On Page 99 the documentary “An Injury to One (Travis Wilkerson)”, the film tells the history of a town whose mines are owned by a company named ARCO. A lake which happens fill the open-pit

The ethnic codes or rules, for documentary films seem simple enough to follow, but the problem they could affect the authenticity of a documentary film which may lead it to be inaccurate. An example is the British documentary film titled “You Have Been Trumped” Directed by Anthony Baxter. The film depicts a David and Goliath story, where Trumps propose building a luxury golf course on a Scottish land owned by the locals. Skipping the details, the film ends with the locals wining and the plan for the golf course abandoned, however, the golf course was built and the locals were forced out of the land.

What happened? Why the change of depicting in the

Where the volunteers were recruited to test another person’s the learning skills via shock therapy and would be ordered to administer increasing electric shocks on the ‘learners’. The twist being that the learners were actors and what was being tested was the willingness of the volunteers to follow the commands with the knowledge that it could lead to severe discomfort or even death of fellow human being. Besides having this example to test the ethnic code on both sides with the unknowingly film subjects and the audience, I find it brilliant because it brings out the darkness of an average person by given them a little power or it expresses how easily we act as sheep blindly following orders that we should be second guessing. Who knows the experiment was actually trying to prove it could just being trying to break the ethnic codes alone?

To end my discussion with a quote form Nichol’s read “ A documentary ethnics would seem to approach to fundamental level when it addresses the need to respect the dignity and earn trust of subjects and viewers alike as well as acknowledge that struggle for power and the right to represent a distinct perspective are at issue. The foundation does not produce “Do this, Do that” dogma but instead acknowledges that questions of ethnics remain situated in an evolving historical context”.[page 162