The Poodle Trainer

I watched the documentary The Poodle Trainer that was about a woman named Irina Markova. She worked for a circus and dedicated her life to training her poodles to create a spectacular show. The documentary was kind of strange because Irina herself and the dog acts are a little odd.  In the documentary it showed the many things she trained her poodles to do which consisted of dressing them up, conga lines and more. In Documentary Film: A Very Short Introduction it states “documentaries are about real life; they are not real life” so this means that they take real life situations and create stories from them. I think they portray Irina as a crazy dog lady to get the point across that she is a passionate animal lover. In the reading Aufderheide states that decisions made for the documentary must remain consistent to the contract you set up for your audience. There was a consistent theme throughout the film that staged her to be a quarky animal lover and they did this with the music, the shots, and her interview so I think the director pulled off this “contract” with the audience they wanted to create. They created a great sequence of shots to showcase the talents and make it more entertaining and by adding in the circus themed music really tied it all together. The music chosen was kind of happy and was serious to really bring in the sincerity of Irina and strengthen the idea of her having this great passion to be a trainer. In the reading it also claims that documentaries a linked to social phenomenon.  Being an animal lover is a social phenomenon because most people have really deep connections with their pets and a dog is supposed to be your best friend. Irina is clearly very passionate about her dogs and she expresses this passion when she talks about her dogs. She said to this day she does not forgive her mother for giving away her dog when she was little. Having a connection to a pet is something a lot of people can connect to and so it makes Irina more relatable so she comes off trustworthier and not a complete crazy dog lady.