Documentary Film Analysis
1. Choose a documentary film from the list. If you want to view a film not on the list you must clear it with the
teacher and have a note from your parents giving you permission.
2. Answer the questions as you view your film.
3. Write an essay using the answers to the questions.
*If your documentary does not use one of the elements listed below then skip it in your analysis.
1. What is the principal subject of this documentary? What is its principal purpose? Does it argue for a
position? Does it critique a position? What kind of impact does it seek to achieve with - and upon - its intended
audience?
2. Does this documentary film make use of material (e.g., live action, scene location, and/or interview)
recorded as spontaneously as possible? Provide an example
3. Does this documentary film combine recorded material with voice-over commentary in which the material
directly illustrates what the commentary indicates? If so, how so and to what effect does the film make use of this
kind of combination? Provide an example
4. Does this documentary film include directly solicit observation, information, reflection, or commentary by
witnesses, experts, and other participants in relation to the documentary subject? What kinds of witnesses,
experts, and/or other participants does the film maker find most useful, how does she or he use them to get the
film's chief points across, and what kind of response does the film maker seek to evoke by using these subjects
as she or he does?
5. Does the documentary film maker use any other kinds of illustrative or suggestive material (such as
animated or still photographic images, and dramatic reconstructions or reenactments) to get her or his points
across? If so, what, and to what effect?
6. Does this documentary film include voiceover or direct-to-camera address by a figure who is essentially
directing the viewer in the reception of information or argument? If so, how, and to what particular kind of
(intended) effect?
7. Does the documentary film maker edit live footage, archival footage, direct interviews, retrospective
interviews, and other illustrative or suggestive scenes and images to take a stance and argue for a position?
Does the documentary film maker arrange the edited film according to a particular kind of logical pattern, and, if
so, what is this pattern? What, in other words, is the organizing principle that the film maker follows in deciding
what shots to place where and in what sequence? What kinds of proportions among these various types of
images does the film maker choose in what she or he puts together to show us (his or her audience)? Why does
he or she give priority to one versus another kind of (non-fictional) image as she or he does? What principal
overall aims appear to guide the choices the film maker makes in editing the film as she or he does?
8. Does the documentary film maker accompany the image with sound that does not have its ostensible source
in anything that we see within the frame (such as music)? How does he or she use this sound - to what effect?
9. Does the documentary film maker position the camera, and shift the position of the camera, in terms of
angle and distance, to express and communicate a particular take or point of view on what the camera records and, more generally, on the principal subject of his or her film?
Does the documentary film maker use particular degrees and variations of focus, exposure, sharpness,
brightness, contrast, color and/or hue, to express and communicate a take or point of view on what the camera
records - and, more generally, on the principal subject of her or his film? What kinds of main overall effects does
the documentary filmmaker seem to aim to achieve by these cinematographic means?
10. Effect the film had on the audience—What effect do you think that the filmmakers were attempting to have on
the audience? How do they attempt to achieve that effect? To what degree were the successful in that attempt?
10.
How would you evaluate the effectiveness of this documentary film? Why?
Formatting the essay:
1. Use MLA formatting which includes 1 inch margins on both sides and top and bottom. Double space entire paper
from your name in the header. No extra spaces between paragraphs. Use our class header (name, class code,
date, film analysis).
2. Use this plan to organize your essay:
a. Use your answer to questions #1 for your introduction (paragraph #1).
b. Organize the material from questions # 2 through 9 into the body paragraphs for your essay.
c. Use your answer to #10 & 11 for your conclusion.
List of films:
Appendix A:
Spellbound
March of the Penguins
Man on a Wire
Bowling for Columbine and Columbine by David
Cullen
Super Size Me
Darfur Now
When the Levees Broke
Civil Action Jonathan Harr and the Film Civil Action
The Soloist by Steve Lopex and the Film the Soloist
The Facebook Effect by David Kilpatrick and The
Social Network
The Blind Side by Michael Lewis and the film The
Blind Side
Return with Honor
Freakonimics
Waiting for Superman
Appendix B:
JFK: A New Orleans district attorney attempts to solve the conspiracy of the assassination of president Kennedy.
Glory: The story of an all black regiment during the Civil War
Missississippi Burning: The FBI tries to solve the murder of three civil rights workers during the 1960s.
Ghosts of Mississippi: A ditstrict attorney attempts ot bring to justice the murder of Medgar Evers in Mississippi.
Appollo 13: Astronauts are stranded in space in the 1970s.
The Queen: Queen Elizabeth II attempts to bring England together after the death of Princess Diana.
Awakenings: Sayer is a neurologist who discovers that the drug L-dopa can be used to “unlock” patients in a mental
hospital from the mysterious sleeping sickness that has left hem utterly immobilized.
Hotel Rwanda: A hotel manager attempts to help refugees during the Rwandan genocide
Beautiful Mind: Deals with the struggles of sanity of a brilliant mathematician who discovered game theory.
The Right Stuff: Explores the beginnings of the space program and the first astronauts.
Capote: Depicts the life of writer Truman Capote as he writes about a murder of a family and interviews the killers in
Kansas in the 1960s in his work In Cold Blood.
Rocket Boys: A group of teenagers attempt to build a rocket for a national science project in a West Virginian coal
mining town in the 1950s.
Sea Biscuit: The story of the famous horse, its rider, and trainer as it attempts to win the Kentucky Derby in the
1940s.
Band of Brothers: the story of group of soldiers who land at D-Day during WWII.
From Earth to Moon: A history of space exploration.
The Insider: An employee of the cigarette industry exposes the industry’s corruption.
Chariots of Fire: Several men train for and compete in running in the 1924 Olympic Games.
Schindler’s List: The story of a man who attempts to protect his Jewish workers from the Holocaust.
Thirteen Days: Deals with the behind the scenes decision during the Cuban Missile Crisis amongst the Kennedy
Cabinet.
Remember the Titans: A group of football players attempt to come together as a team during racial integration in
the 70s.
Alive: An Argentinian soccer team’s plane crashes in the Andes in the 1970’s and they have to decide what’s for
dinner.
United 93: The story of a plane which was hijacked on September 11, 2001.
All the President’s Men: Woodward and Bernstein investigate the Watergate breakins and attempt to make
connections to President Nixon.
Amadeus: Biograhy of the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Munich: The story of a group of Isreali secret service men who seek retaliation for the slaying of Isreali Olympic team
by the P.L.O. during the 1972 Munich Games.
ELACC9-10W2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of
content.
a. Introduce a topic; organize complex ideas, concepts, and information to make important connections and distinctions; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., figures, tables), and multimedia
when useful to aiding comprehension.
b. Develop the topic with well-chosen, relevant, and sufficient facts, extended definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples appropriate to the audience’s knowledge of the
topic.
c. Use appropriate and varied transitions to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships among complex ideas and concepts.
d. Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to manage the complexity of the topic.
e. Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing.
f. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation presented (e.g., articulating implications or the significance of the topic)