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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Docu-drama's

11:31 / 18.02.07

I've been recording and slowly watching (I never watch things live anymore it seems) the Nuclear Secrets series of docudramas that have just finished playing on BBC2 - it's shaping up as an interesting show, but something about docudramas iritates me. I'm not sure if its the pantomime manner in which information is presented, or if I feel that it's a dumbing down process, people unable to focus on raw information need it dressed up as drama. Same with the Nurenburg trials series.

So, is raw information too much or not 'dramatic' enough for you? Do you like the dramatic take on documentary - has traditional documentary become too much like 'reality tv' to be accepted by the lay-person?

13:20 / 18.02.07

I dunno, documentary is as much about constructing a narrative as fiction is.

Isn't the problem with documentary that, by its very nature, it lacks immediacy and that reconstructions are an effective means of providing this quality.

There is also the problem of the form that raw information comes in. Statistics aren't very visual and are only the building blocks of a narrative on their own. How to construct that narrative and illustrate it is the question. And then there are problems where certain kinds of information are not accessible for a wide variety of reasons. It might be that as with the last moments of Adolf Hitler, there is no documentary footage, or it might simpl be that a particular TV production company doesn't have the money or influence to buy footage that would do much of the narrative work.

Nick Broomfield's documentaries, particularly Kurt and Courtney frequently reflect the problems of a lack of access...

21:09 / 18.02.07

I don't suppose Spellbound counts, does it?

11:43 / 23.02.07

Truth can be stranger then fiction sometimes.

Docudrama actually makes for better documentaries. The trouble is that people still have the image of the boring PBS thing from 1972 when they think of documentaries.

My issue is with fictional films that claim to be a realistic portrayal and then disingenuously diverge from what really happened, like most war movies.

17:31 / 23.02.07

Would Threads be described as a Docu-drama? I know 'The War Game' is described in this way. When they are done well, as in these two cases, they are brilliant. However, some of the more recent efforts have been crap. I did like the one about the smallpox pandemic though.