Blog - 1 Lovely Andrea-Yung Jake-Defining Documentary

This week we really explored what a documentary film really is. We opened with a discussion on the nature of what exactly makes a film a documentary.

The article Defining Documentary puts things into a broader perspective, looking at all the suggested definitions and reconstructs a definition from all of that. The article brings up the argument that a documentary is a portrayal of the facts. While this is true, a documentary also has to have other things and cannot simply be something as blank as say, security camera footage. The article mentions the need for realism but also the conventions of film, as well as the need to teach or express and illuminate a certain point of view.

Lovely Andrea is a really interesting documentary because it seems to create conventions while still fitting comfortably within the scope of a documentary. The film manages to convey several messages without telling the audience what to think. By clear expository, very raw filmmaking, the film manages to showcase a variety of issues like feminism, sexuality, past vs. present, freedom and bondage, as well as independence in the modern word.  It does all of this in a mixed up, non-linear fashion, intercutting music and clips from cartoons, music videos and movie clips.

Yung Jake’s e.m-bed.de/d really stretches the lines of what you could call a documentary, possibly even to the point of absurdity. The video shows something that certainly conveys and idea and does so in an interesting way, using open windows to show a cumulative rise to fame of the artist. The video shows just how fame spreads on the internet, gathering fame slowly until it takes off and then showing just how quickly something can go viral in the modern world. It is an exploration and possibly a critique of modern fame and the internet and how it enters our life. The problem that I have with calling it a doc is that it is presented as a fictional story and does not truthfully track any real person.