I was scrolling my YouTube and found that Werner Herzog and Errol Morris actually did an interview for Vice. It was about the Movie The Act of Killing, by Joshua Oppenheimer. Although that film is incredible and does a lot of things that I don’t think many other documentaries do (from what I’ve heard and seen snip bits of). Herzog brings up his idea that facts don’t exactly mean truth again. He went on to explain that if we wanted something one hundred percent factual then we’d just read a phonebook. That the sense that documentaries have to be this perfectly factual medium is false and doesn’t really do justice to what it truly is. Although this is my own interpretation of his words, from what I gather out of his interview is that documentaries are a tool. Their purpose is solely to help spread the director’s ideas or opinions, sometimes they can inform or help interpret situations or subjects that its viewers would otherwise not know about. By no means though is documentary meant to be a form of education or better put as Herzog puts, “documentaries are not adult education”. It seems silly but it does seem like that’s what people see documentaries as, a form of adult education, its art, its film, Pixar doesn’t put out movies to teach kids, it entertains them sometimes they may happen to teach a lesson. So, do documentaries some may set out to teach, but they don’t necessarily have to. I personally have learnt a whole lot about wars through documentaries, but they only served as a point of launch, I’d delve deeper read some books etc. Documentaries are just one of many artistic mediums, they are an extension of the director and as such can be biased, opinionated, and even fictitious. It’s up to the viewer to educate themselves and decide whether they agree or not with whatever is presented to them, we are all free of will and thought if anything documentaries simply provide a window into a subject and it gives us a chance to decide if we want to dive into that subject or not. 

Stories We Tell was enjoyable because I felt like it shifted from what I originally perceived it to be to something totally different. When it began I thought it would just be a family biopic or anything like that, yet as the film went on it shifted its appearance multiple times. It gave me the sense that I was watching this project unfold and shift the way it must have for the director as she set out to film it. What may have been a delve into her family, and as she eventually said, a chance to take a closer look at how peoples stories affect and change our personal history’s or understanding of it, soon became the search for Sarah Polley’s true origin. That story of search for identity, is relatable, it sparks reaction from its viewers as we saw in class and possibly felt ourselves. Whether it’s the inner conflict to decide who is right or wrong based on our own morals and experiences, or understanding Polley’s questions and journey comparing it to our own. It has a sense of a very personal project, which it was, but because of that it causes this spark in emotion in its viewers, something that history docs. Etc. Just can’t have and this is what has made this documentary stick out to me. The power in a film to spark up controversy, or just reactions simply by putting a story out there. I enjoyed watching everything unfold, and getting a sense of a story that we can all somewhat relate too. The scene where one of Polley’s sisters says, “Who cares about our stupid family”, that kind of echoed inside a bit. We probably all see our family stories as dumb but they can be so entertaining for others, and most importantly they do have such a big impact that we can’t even see at times. It reminds me of what our visitor said, about personal projects resonating with viewers and sparking a way bigger reaction that much is definitely true about this film. 

I have this sense that Herzog saw Treadwell somewhere and kind of just asked who is this man, what drives him to do what he does or did and set out to answer it. He provided with an un-biased look into his life, into who Treadwell was. Although there are some negative opinions on him in the film such as the pilot that said he deserved to die. There are many who simply saw him as a man with a goal in mind. Whether he went about it the right or wrong way isn’t really the point of the film and I do feel like that is left up to the viewer hence why Herzog provided us with many different viewpoints from various people. Although it should be taken into account that Herzog tends to focus on people who are borderline obsessive, and towards the end Treadwell did seem to be consumed by his work. The outcome of this work seems to simply be a truth full semi biopic of Treadwell who sadly didn’t have the time to really represent himself or put out his own words on what he did or why he did it. He left his mark and that speaks out to what he set out to do, Treadwell wanted to recreate himself for the better and he sure did. Going from whatever troubled life he had previously held, to teaching children in schools for no personal gain. He brought attention to the bears, and shed some more positive light on them. There is a bit of a tale of caution within, Herzog specializes on these obsessive subjects for a reason. There is a definite outcome of educating viewers on who Treadwell was as a person in an honest light, there is a cautionary tale within that can be seen through Treadwell’s unedited work. That of a man consumed by his work in search of something more, he had a great heart but like the local native had stated. There Is a line that he eventually crossed and sadly ended in a gruesome death. I don’t think Herzog wants to discourage anyone to be an activist or attempt the work Treadwell did. If anything, he may be seeking to get people to see what he did and be inspired by him as a person with all the good and bad that we come with as people, flawed in nature but very capable. What I gather from the film is that people should seek to have an impact like Treadwell did but to also become informed and understand the impact they are trying to have and how to interact with whatever they may be getting into. 

          High School honestly brought back a lot of memories for me. I think this may be a part of Wisemans’ plan because not only does this documentary really bring a sense of you being there, but it almost feels like you are watching this through a pair of eyes and not a lens. There are a few points in the movie where he seems to zoom in on weird shots, or even questionable ones such as the girl’s gym class. Maybe that is the point though, the focus is on things that a person may be focused on to begin with. A girl with a pretty face in the hall, the boys lip quivering while he’s trying to be argue his innocence, a mother’s hand fidgeting etc. This gives the film a sense of agency because it doesn’t feel like observation it feels like you are there. I don’t think that the people in the film are acting perfectly natural, but they do seem relaxed and going about their day to the best of their ability. The arguments are credible, I mean they feel like something anyone in the audience may have easily gone through, or witnessed as a high school student. It was just relatable, I found myself enthralled watching the film unfold but at the same time going down my own memories. I remembered my own experiences, my detentions, my impossible arguments with teachers, but most importantly the people that affected my life. See at the end when the teacher reads that note allowed she begins by saying that this person wasn’t great academically he was below average really. She isn’t bashing him she’s saying that even though he wasn’t a great student and maybe caused trouble that wasn’t a reason to give up on him, the teachers that stood by him truly impacted him as a person. I feel like maybe this was Wisemans’ message the importance of these moments in our life’s, the effect that high school and our teachers have on us. He spent all that time filming the day and showing all these different interactions with different people, it’s those memories that we eventually carry with us that he wants to emphasize. Just like the ones I was remembering while I watched in awe remembering the good and bad, and witnessing the same unfold so vividly in front of me.

         A few days ago, I binged on “American Vandal”. It’s a mockumentary where a high school student is trying to find the truth behind a huge high school prank on the staff gone too far. One student is expelled as he is the only person that “fits”. It is hilarious, the prank itself is funny, but it does a great job of showing you the way a documentary would be worked on. The documentarist as he at some point addresses himself as, shows the work ethic it takes to create something like a documentary. All his interviews, the research and questioning of everyone, all the theories. I mean documentarist aren’t just filmmakers, they become scientists, detectives, whatever they need to be “to find the truth”. That stuck out to me, this work of fiction, a show about some high school mockup getting blamed for something he would probably end up doing anyway, it’s a damn great piece of work. I mean it may honestly be some of the best insight into a documentary that I have seen in a while, it parodies true crimes but it’s a whole lot more honest than most of those series. Most of all it’s a hell of a lot more honest than “Nanook of the north”. Don’t get me wrong Nanook was kind of cool, but let’s be honest it was staged and fake and wasn’t exactly upfront about it. It didn’t have a message, it didn’t shed any light on an issue, or even try to reach any truth. This Netflix original which is upfront about its mocking nature. It does hold message although at the very end in a short speech, and it certainly goes about showing some real-life process that a documentary or crime research might go through and I mean that’s cool. Seeing as I’m passing 300 words by now, American Vandal set out to make a fake crime documentary on probably the most bro humor topic you could think of, yet it gave the viewer a view into what the work is like and you walked away with a message and maybe even some truth. It’s a bit weird to think that this is what we call mockumentaries while Nanook is still a “real” documentary, props to Netflix for making what some may see as a joke of a genre into something that honestly holds its weight.