The Promotional World: Documentary

"In feature films the director is God; in documentary films God is the director."

-Alfred Hitchcock

In the past month I have watched two very different documentaries. My selection of choices was very slim, because at the moment, gas for my car is far more important than a Netflix account. So I went to my local redbox and found two movies I was interested in seeing.

My first choice was The Cove (2009). I had never heard of this Rick O'Barry guy, but I knew about the show Flipper and I’ve always loved animals, so I decided to give it a try. After watching the award winning documentary, I found myself wanting to hop on the next flight to Japan to save all the dolphins from the evil killers. I felt I needed to do something instead of just turning the DVD off and returning it at redbox. I had to do something right? After looking up how much plane tickets cost, I decided to focus my efforts elsewhere.

For my second choice I watched The September Issue (2009). Directed by R.J Cutler, this subjective documentary is a behind the scenes look of making the famous September issue of Vogue magazine. I have always loved the art of fashion. Watching this movie brought fashion to a new life through the eyes of Vogue editor Anna Wintour. After watching this movie, I wanted to pack my belongings and move to New York City to become a fashion designer. Then I remembered that New York City is way too expensive and I don’t like the subway.

Yes, you could say that I am gullible when I watch these types of movies but “documentary movies are about insight and learning.” (Corrigan White 2009 p. 272) (Trust me, I’m not that easily influenced. I don't buy into anything Michael Moore does.) These movies are presumed to be nonfiction so you’re supposed to watch documentaries with an open mind and take what you will from them. Watching these two films, I felt I learned something; the inhumane dolphin killers must be stopped and that fashion is just more than clothes and supermodels. I knew a little more about fashion (I made my mom get me my first subscription to Vogue at 13!) but I was surprised I had never heard of the dolphin killings in Japan. Is it because Japan didn’t want the rest of the world to know their secret? Is it because they are feeding dolphins with high levels of mercury to people and they didn’t want to tell anyone? Or is it because they didn’t want Americans to cash in on their gold mine? Whatever their answer may be I was angry after watching The Cove. But I was glad this issue was brought to light and watching this film made me ask these questions to myself. That’s what a good documentary does.

I got an iTunes gift card not too long ago, and as you can tell, I like movies, so I’m excited to finally rent the documentary Food Inc. (2008). I heard from a lot of people that after watching this film “you won’t want to eat for a week”, but I’m going to watch it with an open mind and a bag of popcorn. Hopefully they don’t talk about popcorn because I don’t want to give that up like I did McDonalds after watching Super Size Me (2004)!