Documentaries

Documentaries are about storytelling. Whether it’s the person whose story it is or the filmmaker’s. A documentary is like looking at someone or something naked. I think the best word to describe it would be raw. Documentaries are different than anything else. I think documentaries are all about investments. You, as a viewer, invest in the main character and/or other characters. You see two people fall in love, and then you find out that the woman doesn’t remember the man the next day. There’s no way you’re not going to cry at the end of the movie. We, as people, are compassionate. It’s part of our human nature. That’s what distinguishes us from other creatures.

I watched two documentaries: Farrah GFE and Quicksand. I watched Farrah GFE first, and then I was browsing through the rest and Quicksand stood out. I chose each one for a different reason. Farrah GFE sounded interesting. It was something that showed reality in a way that many people don’t get to see.

While you couldn’t clearly see her face, there was a moment when she was blurred just enough to see the outline of her nose and her cheekbones, without giving away any distinguishing features. This part of the six-minute documentary was so strong, it was incredible. Throughout the documentary, she was giving commentary about her story, but we only saw images of her legs, her hands, her bed, sometimes other things in her apartment, and the back of her head. We could see her skin color and hair color, but not her eye color. We couldn’t see her face. And when we got that glimpse, while blurry as it was, it made her story that must more impactful. It made her a real person, not just a voice. This was the representation of reality in this documentary.

“Farrah” was a girl like any other, but she lived a life much different than most of us know of. Her story made me think a lot about myself and my decisions. Her words were a window to her life as Farrah.  And also a window to who she was as an unnamed girl. We never learned her real name, for obvious reasons. And neither did her clients. While her story gives us an insight into her world, it also shows the distance she places between herself and others.

Even as viewers, people she’s never met before, and never will, we are treated like clients. It’s basically a giant mind “screw”. “Screw” because the other word wasn’t quite appropriate. It’s the truth though. Just when you start to have your own feelings about her and her situation, just when you start to invest yourself, you realize that she’s nothing but a stranger.

Moving onto Quicksand, I wanted to outline something else from the text we were supposed to read – naming. Naming is what we first see. If you saw something on TV called “The Story of a Man Who Tried to Remind His Wife He Loved Her after a Tragic Accident”, would you watch it? I mean, I would, but the title kind of gives everything away. It doesn’t make you curious to see what’s going to happen. If you saw “The Vow” on your TV, you’d probably be like “Wow!  I wonder what that’s about. I should watch it”. And then you’ll be like “Channing Tatum. Yup. Definitely watching this”. Naming builds expectations. The name Quicksand doesn’t really give anything away, but it definitely paints a picture in your mind. The documentary was about this elderly man who had lost his memories, which we found to be due to Alzheimer’s disease. This documentary struck another chord inside me. And it relates to my feelings towards Farrah GFE.

We choose how people will see us. We choose what to wear, how to act, and what to say. We choose to tell stories and paint pictures. And we also choose what to omit. However, what most people don’t realize is that we don’t always have a choice. Memories come and go, with age and with time. But they can also go because of trauma. Something traumatic can happen in your life, and you can either remember it every day or completely forget it. The luckier of the two depends on the person.

I, for example, do not remember most of my childhood. My family has pictures and people have stories where I have blanks. I don’t know if I choose to forget. I just remember not being able to remember anymore. I guess you could say its how I kept myself safe. I blocked the bad, but unfortunately it blocked the good as well.

Anyways, this old man had Alzheimer’s and he couldn’t remember his life. He couldn’t remember the day his kids were born or how old he was. He couldn’t remember what he said he wanted to be remembered by. Talk about emotional. If this documentary was any longer, I swear I would have just created another ocean. This documentary told the truth, like the one before, but it struck a different chord. I invested in this character, and I felt his pain. I felt his want to remember the memories he had lost.

And that’s when you know it’s good. When you’re watching a documentary, and you cry. You can smile too, that works just the same. That’s how you know that this filmmaker did something great. They can make you feel something, really feel something. It’s not fabricated. It’s real. It’s raw.