Documentary as an art Form

 

From the earliest days of cinema, documentaries have provided a powerful way of engaging audiences with the world. In many ways, they have been more effective at this than dramatic feature films. While the fictional forms seized for themselves the wide enterprise of entertainment or art, the documentary maintained its grip on the imaginative encounter with the realities of our world. Even as documentaries were eclipsed by the glamour of the feature world, they remained stubbornly insistent on pursuing truth through a mode of seeing and artistic creation that no other art form provided. Audiences wanted to see and hear those truths.
Documentary films alerted audiences to environmental degradation, health care crises, to issues of social injustice_ the list is long and honorable_ as much as providing an entrée into little-known worlds, whether on the other side of the globe or next door in an immigrant quarter. Often it was a documentary that first brought to wide public attention taboo subjects such as mental illness, the treatment of gays and lesbians, and the appalling living condition on Aboriginal reserves.
 The documentary is a vital component of our lives and massive amounts of data have been recorded every day by individuals, which assist in educating themselves about diverse themes. Undoubtedly, the importance of using various visual works seems essential to engaging and attracting a larger public. Installation art has an enormous capacity to depict a documentary story by opening a novel window on the world, revealing the interwoven layers of life, and expanding more dialogue about social issues. It is important to understand whether or not documentary-based installation artwork can faithfully transfer information and educate viewers.
The nature of installation art is complicated to determine and it does not possess a straightforward historical process, yet it is an artistic genre that gained prominence in the 1970s. The word ‘installation’ has been extended to define any presentation of objects in any given space and it can be applied even to the usual display of paintings on a wall. However, there is a fine line between installation art and installation of art. The word ‘installation’, used in publications, explains the way in which an exhibition was arranged throughout this decade. Nevertheless, ‘Installation Art’ is an expression that indicates a form of art, which is often described as ‘immersive’ or ‘experiential’, and it creates an environment in which the viewer experiences the work physically. A visual document about history has a very influential and moving impression. Indeed documentarians can portray the truth and provide us the opportunity to dig into history, investigate it, and learn about the past. With the development of technology over the years, artists are capable of exploring outside the boundaries that could not be explored by artists in the past.
As a medium has grown from strength to strength over the last decade or so. In fact, many documentarians have said that this is the golden age of documentary filmmaking, and the numbers certainly seem to support this. Out of the more than 800 feature films released theatrically in the US in 2011, more than 300 were documentaries.
However, the general public seems unaware of this, thanks partly to the limited publicity given to this art form. Documentaries and non-fiction films in general do not gather as much publicity as fiction films. In fact, few people know that there is an alternative to the Oscars for documentary films, known as the Cinema Eye Honors.
In spite of this, documentaries have continued to grow. This can be attributed to increased democratization in the industry as well as easy access to a means of production and distribution. These days, anybody can tell his or her story. With the recent advancements in technology, it is easy to make film and broadcast it to a ready audience via the internet. Although this is a good thing, it has given rise to a new challenge_ the glut of projects has made it harder for meaningful ones to stand out and get noticed.
Documentaries had impact because they adapted to the available means of production and distribution. Documentarians were avid adopters of new technologies, which periodically revitalized the classical documentary form.
More traditional documentarians are uncomfortable with the demands of digital creation and tend to dismiss it as mere technology. The fact that their craft is anchored in technology (movie cameras, computerized animation stands, editing machines, projectors, and so on) is opaque to them. This kind of resistance is common whenever a new art form threatens to displace an older one. If anything, resistance underscores the importance of the upstart art practice.
 The interactive documentary will not eliminate the classic film documentary. Photography did not kill art; cinema did not kill theatre; television did not kill cinema. But the new form will grow in strength, maturity, and impact. In the evolution of the interactive documentary, we are at a place equivalent to where the film was between the invention of the movie camera in the mid- 19^th century and the birth of cinema some 20 years later.
In those 20 years, the techniques that defined the artistic and narrative practices of the movies were developed: montage, tracking shots, double exposure, crosscutting, and so on. Today, we watch a film and have an almost innate understanding of how the story is being told. The Storytelling methods are an embedded part of our mental furniture. But a little over 100 years ago it was not so self-evident. Audiences had to learn that new language of narratives. The great pioneers of cinema- Dziga Vertex, Sergei Eisenstein, Georges Melles, and D.W. Griffith_ led the way.
“Audience” by definition, is an act of receiving- etymologically, through the ear. Audiences are no longer receivers; they are role players. Our audiences may at any time be co-creators, citizens, activists, teachers, learners, collaborators, fans, and so on. The audience as a role player changes everything.
 Audiences are not only connecting and watching and interacting; they are learning. Consider apps. There are thousands of them available. We use them for all sorts of purposes. But there is one thing that all apps do, and we don’t give it any conscious thought: they educate us. They teach us different modes of engagement with the devices that contain our lives. We are constantly learning how to read information and input information. Our relationship is undergoing a sea change in the internet of things; wearable tech will add to a shifting relationship of audiences.
Documentaries would be extended into the digital space by means of an information dump. The interactive documentary may accommodate a great deal more material, but the organization of that material in a coherent artistic form remains fundamental, albeit very different from the cinematic documentary.
Regardless of this, documentary filmmakers have still managed to do what they love the most. They have given the world a number of outstanding productions, some of which have inspired intense debate among film fans. Take for instance a documentary such as The Act of Killing, directed by Joshua Oppenheimer in 2012. The director challenges a group of former Indonesian death-squad leaders to re-enact their mass killings as they are recorded/ the film provides a unique insight into the mind of a mass killer.
Another good example is the 2013 documentary Blackfish. This film outlines the story of a killer whale from its capture in the wild to its deadly despair in a tank at Sea World. This particular documentary caused such uproar that the Sea World brand suffered irreparable losses, leading to falling in shares and the eventual resignation of the CEO.
 Other being respected works in their own right, the documentaries above helped to start a discussion on issues affecting certain sections of society. They achieved their aim and helped bring about meaningful changes. Such is the power of documentaries. In fact, they can be so influential that renowned documentary makers such as Michael Moore have gone on to become major influences on the political landscape.
“We Steal Secrets “produced by CEO Marc Smugger in 2013, is proof of this. One does not need a huge budget to create a documentary they effects change. Perhaps that is the hidden beauty of documentary films: the ability to tell true, meaningful stories to the masses that are fed up with processed news and are hungry for a sense of reality and a dose of the truth.
 Documentary films are the rarest of art films. They educate, they entertain, they challenge, they inspire; in short, they have the power to change lives.