Is This The News? - Can Documentaries Fill The Print Media Gulf?
Well, of course they can't but just go with it, eh?
Ahead of the inaugural Sundance London Film And Music Festival, founder Robert Redford claimed that, with newspapers in decline, it has fallen upon documentary film to plug the gap.
Since he had an event to promote, one might suggest the star was overstating the state of play with an eye to attracting publicity. But if we assume for a minute that he is right and that - as the very excellent documentary Page One: Inside The New York Times suggests - the print media might have had its day, can we really rely upon non-fiction film to satisfy our need to know what's going on in the world?
The following films illustrate the cases for and against Redford's argument. Of course, film will always have a hard time capturing the immediacy of print media. But if we take that as red, is it possible - or even desirable - that non-fiction cinema should shoulder the news-gathering burden?
The Case For...
McLibel (2005) - In 1990, McDonald's brought a libel suit against British environmental activists Helen Steel and David Morris. The fast food giant's case concerned a pamphlet Steel and Morris had distributed outside the Charing Cross Station branch which claimed that, among other things, McDonald's "destroys rain forests with poisons and colonial invasions" and "exploits children with its advertising". Throughout the entire length of the legal action (matters weren't fully resolved until 2005), filmmaker Franny Armstrong was on hand to document Steel and Morris's endeavours. The end result - which features dramatic sequences directed by Ken Loach - is a stunning indictment of the British legal system and the ability of conglomerates to crush those that stand against them, not because of their efficacy but by sheer weight of resources.
For The Bible Tells Me So (2007) - Daniel G Karslake's terrific documentary investigates the troubled relationship between religion and homosexuality in the United States. A topic so hot, a lot of people prefer simply to ignore it, Karslake grabs the bull by the balls, interviewing five Christian families each of which has either a gay or lesbian child. This courageous approach results in a movie that ought to be required viewing for anyone who would use a book of faith to inflict misery upon someone whose only 'sin' is the choice of person they prefer to pop into bed with.
As you might expect, For The Bible Tells Me So also provides concrete evidence that, while there are clearly a lot of enlightened people around, there are a number of people in the US still living in the dark ages.
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