Documentary Essays (Examples)

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When writing an argumentative essay, you are encouraged to take strong positions that might not be appropriate in other types of academic writing.  This is especially true when you are crafting your hook, which is a dramatic statement, usually a sentence or two, designed to capture the reader’s interest and get them interested enough to read the rest of the essay.  You might find this type of task challenging when focusing on a topic like zoos.  However, if you consider how popular the Netflix Series Tiger King was in the summer of....

1. Analyze a persuasive speech given by a political leader and evaluate the effectiveness of their rhetoric.
2. Examine an advertisement or commercial and analyze the rhetorical strategies used to sell a product or service.
3. Compare and contrast the rhetorical techniques used in two different speeches on a similar topic.
4. Analyze a controversial public figure's use of rhetoric and how it influences public perception.
5. Investigate how social media influencers use rhetoric to persuade their audience.
6. Evaluate the effectiveness of rhetorical techniques used in a famous courtroom speech or closing argument.
7. Analyze the use of rhetorical devices in a piece of literature....

Documentary Movies
PAGES 7 WORDS 2479

Ken Burns' Documentary: The National Parks -- America's Best Idea
The reputation Ken Burns has acquired over the years is a glowing, highly lauded reputation, and for good reason. His use of history, video and well-written narrative has won awards and has entertained and informed all those who have come into contact with his documentaries. The documentary to be critiqued and reviewed in this paper is The National Parks -- America's Best Idea.

How Yosemite Got its Name

The first segment of The National Parks focuses on the very popular national park, Yosemite, in California. Burns starts off by pointing to a group of "armed white men" called the Mariposa Battalion. It was in the middle of the California gold rush in 1851 and they were riding through California searching for Native Americans they could drive from their homeland. On March 27 of that year these men found what would later be called….

Documentary Tradition
PAGES 15 WORDS 4382

Photographers:
Exploring the orld Through Their Lenses

Documentary Photography: a depiction of the real world by a photographer whose intent is to communicate something of importance -- to make a comment -- that will be understood by the viewer. (Documentary Photography 12)

hen the camera was invented, photographers learned that they no longer needed oil paint and brushes to capture a scene or a person. On film, they could now record the life and times of the period in which they lived, either from a sense of mission or simply to leave an accurate version of their life and times for others.

hile some photographers tried to make their pictures look like artwork with a soft focus, others began recognizing the stark impact and power that a photograph could have. The realism of a photograph could actually motivate, persuade, emote, inform. Matthew Brady was one of the first photographers who understood this power….

Documentary Babies
PAGES 2 WORDS 608

Babies Documentary
It is always interesting to see how another culture lives. As a person who lives in a modern country, it is hard to fathom living in any other way. You take for granted the modern conveniences all around you. Now, it is more difficult imagining how to raise a baby in an environment unfamiliar to your own. "Babies" does a great job showing this distinction. The best thing the director did was to not narrate; you reach all conclusions through observation. They say a picture is worth a million words, well, a movie must be worth billions. The viewer simply feels and experiences the differences in upbringing.

The movie makes it clear that Ponijao and Bavar are representatives of rural upbringing in a less modern society while Mari and Hattie are being raised in a manner familiar to the majority of the audience. Despite the differences in ethnicity, cultural backgrounds,….

The basic elements of documentary are taken from the events in the story (Nicols, 26-35). The historical facts are narrated such that there are often flash backs to the events as a connection develops to a past event. There is greater degree of dramatic license given minor details where history does not offer any details. The elements of a drama documentary are:
Depiction of real life historical events

The emphasis on known facts of the event and prevailing perceptions

Flashing the facts using literary and narrative techniques to tell the story

The drama esthetics is maintained by discussing minor historical facts and conspiracies

The "Who killed Dr. Bogle and Mrs. Chandle" documentary does not use dramatic license very often to maintain drama more than the story. ather it maintains the series of facts to come to a conclusive point and thus makes effective progress towards solving the decade's long mystery of the killing case.….

Dorothy Lange and Documentary Photography
Life is documented daily, whether in newspaper photographs of world events, in feature magazines of faraway places and in photo albums of family snapshots. Essentially, all photography is a documentary of whatever is being photographed for whatever reason. However, traditionally, the mention of documentary photography brings up familiar images from a few twentieth century photographers, such as Ansel Adams, alker Evans, Roy Stryker, Arthur Rothstein and Dorothy Lange, whose photographs have not only documented culture but has become a part of the culture itself.

Photographs are often regarded by historians as a critical form of documentary evidence that enable past events to come to life, as if looking in a mirror (History Pp). "Public and scholarly faith in the realism of the photographic image is grounded in a belief that a photograph is a mechanical reproduction of reality" (History Pp). Susan Sontag once said, "Photographed images do….

The poor quality of 1960s home video and the amateurish jerkiness of the Zapruder film add to the humbleness of the work and the humbling nature of death, but "Report" consciously makes the appearance of the film grainy and flickering to elicit an emotional response in the viewer. The viewer feels off-balanced, destabilized, by both the techniques and the events.
Connor's highly crafted use of amateurish, grainy appearances of shots, in contrast to Zapruder's accidental work suggests that the viewer is trying to imperfectly apprehend the past, of a simpler and more innocent time though its intentional distortion of what seems unalterable, namely television coverage. Memory, Connor implies, is imperfect, even though footage like the Zapruder film suggests that encapsulating the past is possible.

In contrast to Conner's "Report," Zapruder's film has no intentional bias -- Zapruder's only bias, if it can be called that, is due to his vantage on….

Media executives not journalists were in control at ox and determined the on-air content. Demonstrating that no news is free from engineering by the production team, the documentary revealed that Republicans made up of 83% of the interview subjects on ox, and only weaker liberal voices were asked as guests, to serve as punching bags rather than as advocates of an alternative point-of-view.
As a final indignity, during the 2004 Presidential Campaign, the ox network openly campaigned for Bush, daily attacking John Kerry's positions and presenting Republican-generated questions about the Democrat's character and war service without any question of their veracity. Even if someone does not watch ox News, in short, they may have to suffer in a nation governed by a man elected under a dubious electoral system, where partisan news is presented as real news, without disclosure of the network's biases. The network even declared Bush the winner….

DOCUMENTARY/FILM ASSESSMENT AND REVIEW Documentary/Film Assessment and ReviewThe documentary film I opted to focus on in this write-up is Four Hours at the Capitol (2021). To give a brief description of the film, it largely recounts the events of Jan 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol Building following Donald Trumps defeat in the previous years elections. Located in Washington, D.C. this particular building happens to be the seat of one of the three branches of the federal government, i.e. the legislative branch.That the seat of representative government in the country could be attacked by dissidents displeased with the outcome of the presidential elections could be seen as a brazen assault on democracy. This is more so the case because as has been alluded to in the film, the attack seems to have been a move to disrupt the counting of Electoral College votes by a joint session of congress. The….

bleep do we know." The documentary has been chosen based on the fact that it has highlighted various issues that relate to the quantum uncertainty, spirituality, evolutionary thought and neurological processes that are an important part of life. The documentary has gained great success all over the world and has been known for a great cinematic blend of drama and comedy. Some of the main facts that have been mentioned in the documentary will be supported with the help of a case study. The documentary will be explained in detail with the characters that have been used in the movie to display the processes being the base of the documentary. In the end of the paper, recommendations will be made that will be related to the changes that are needed in the society in relation to the concepts presented in the paper.
Description

hat bleep do we know is one of….

The interviews appear to be unscripted, further emphasizing the authentic nature of the dialog. The filmmakers do not give themselves an audible voice, which implies that the voice that should be heard is that of the people giving the interviews. The filmmaker's choice in remaining silent and letting the Amish individuals tell their own story is an effective communication tool, which succeeds in engaging the viewers interest.
Despite these two strengths, however, the film does have weaknesses. The most dominant one is the lack of resolution.. While failing to conclude the stories of the individuals interviewed could be interpreted as implying that life never resolves neatly, it also left the viewer feeling unsatisfied with the film. The film seemed to trail off, rather than resolve. The viewer has no way of finding out what happened to the characters after the end of the film, which is highly frustrating after becoming….

This is because most industries will assemble containers, jugs and other products using non-ecofriendly chemicals. hen you try to recycle these materials is when the costs will increase exponentially. This is one of the main reasons why many environmental programs are not cost efficient. ("Pygamilion Videos") (McDonough)
To improve recycling efforts, means that there needs to be a transformation in what materials are used in these products. The best way to achieve this objective requires using a new approach that focuses on biological and technical nutrients. A biological nutrient is when a firm will use various ideas about incorporating ecofriendly elements into their business. This means that they are looking at the design process and determining what techniques must be used to make the product more environmentally friendly. ("Pygamilion Videos") (McDonough)

A technical nutrient is when a product is designed to allow it to be reused at some point later on….

Documentary Response: “A Death in St. Augustine” The nationwide and then global calls for racial justice erupted following the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020 by Minneapolis police officers underscore the public’s overwhelmingly negative reaction when law enforcement authorities, long held in high esteem and respect, are suspected of committing violent crimes themselves. Although
The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic review of the PBS documentary video,” A Death in St. Augustine” to identify and describe the major issue addressed by this documentary and the primary individuals and groups that were involved. In addition, a description of the several biases identified in the documentary, what was liked and disliked about it and what was learned from watching it are followed by a discussion concerning issues in the film that were unconvincing and anomalous. Finally, a discussion concerning whether the documentary changed this writer’s mind about any aspect….

The documentary “A Blank on the Map” is interesting because it shows what happens when two worlds meet. The British explorers in the expedition into New Guinea to meet with the various peoples and groups there, while searching for the group of peple suspected of never having met Europeans before. The explorers brought medicine and sought to identify the groups living in the jungles. They hired locals in the neighboring regions of the “blank on the map” to help guide them, even having one porter call to the seemingly invisible people after more than three walks of going through the “blank” and finding nothing of the group. The interest in the area began when a map maker was trying to make sense of the rivers and hills by studying aerial photographs. The photographs revealed the existence of tribes, and so David Attenborough and his fellow travelers went into the jungle to….

Documentary Part 1
1. This film follows the daily workings of retailers in the dying bricks and mortar retail centers of an urban area. It pays particular attention to the piling inventory and the slowing sales. It shows the emptiness of stores and alludes to the ominous presence of e-commerce and Amazon hanging over the heads of these bricks and mortar retailers.
2. This will be an informative documentary that will include aspects of the talking heads form as well as the journalistic form. Ken Burns’ documentaries are always inspiring for me but I want this one to be contemporary.
3. Yes, I will be doing interviews: a) I will interview bricks and mortar retailers and customers; b) I will find them by going to the urban area and talking to them; c) to make the film visually interesting, I will use shots of these stores while interviewees’ words are applied in voiceover at….

Battlefields and Big Macs
Documentaries

A Comparative Analysis of Documentary Styles

The role of documentary film in helping to shape and inform American culture has become increasingly apparent, especially in the last decade. The ability of nearly anyone to create and distribute documentaries cheaply and effectively using home computer software and video sharing sites like YouTube has created a diverse body of documentaries available with the click of a button. They are not all good, not all accurate, and some may not even be ethically or legally sound, but if they are powerful enough and relevant enough, they can move people and even governments to act. We have seen this recently with the independently produced documentary "Kony 2012," a 29-minute film that portrays the atrocities committed by Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony. Posted on YouTube in early March, the film got over 100 million hits in one week, and prompted renewed focus by….

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7 Pages
Term Paper

Film

Documentary Movies

Words: 2479
Length: 7 Pages
Type: Term Paper

Ken Burns' Documentary: The National Parks -- America's Best Idea The reputation Ken Burns has acquired over the years is a glowing, highly lauded reputation, and for good reason. His…

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15 Pages
Term Paper

Family and Marriage

Documentary Tradition

Words: 4382
Length: 15 Pages
Type: Term Paper

Photographers: Exploring the orld Through Their Lenses Documentary Photography: a depiction of the real world by a photographer whose intent is to communicate something of importance -- to make a…

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2 Pages
Movie Review

Children

Documentary Babies

Words: 608
Length: 2 Pages
Type: Movie Review

Babies Documentary It is always interesting to see how another culture lives. As a person who lives in a modern country, it is hard to fathom living in any other…

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5 Pages
Essay

Criminal Justice

Australian and International Documentary Australian

Words: 1558
Length: 5 Pages
Type: Essay

The basic elements of documentary are taken from the events in the story (Nicols, 26-35). The historical facts are narrated such that there are often flash backs to…

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8 Pages
Term Paper

American History

Dorothy Lange and Documentary Photography

Words: 2076
Length: 8 Pages
Type: Term Paper

Dorothy Lange and Documentary Photography Life is documented daily, whether in newspaper photographs of world events, in feature magazines of faraway places and in photo albums of family snapshots. Essentially,…

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3 Pages
Essay

Film

Accidental' Documentary Abraham Zapruder's Home

Words: 1244
Length: 3 Pages
Type: Essay

The poor quality of 1960s home video and the amateurish jerkiness of the Zapruder film add to the humbleness of the work and the humbling nature of death,…

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2 Pages
Reaction Paper

Communication - Journalism

Outfoxed Before Watching the Documentary

Words: 784
Length: 2 Pages
Type: Reaction Paper

Media executives not journalists were in control at ox and determined the on-air content. Demonstrating that no news is free from engineering by the production team, the documentary…

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2 Pages
Assessment

Politics - Voting

our Hours at the Capitol Documentary Assessment

Words: 492
Length: 2 Pages
Type: Assessment

DOCUMENTARY/FILM ASSESSMENT AND REVIEW Documentary/Film Assessment and ReviewThe documentary film I opted to focus on in this write-up is Four Hours at the Capitol (2021). To give a brief…

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10 Pages
Essay

Film

Bleep Do We Know The Documentary Has

Words: 3402
Length: 10 Pages
Type: Essay

bleep do we know." The documentary has been chosen based on the fact that it has highlighted various issues that relate to the quantum uncertainty, spirituality, evolutionary thought…

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2 Pages
Essay

Film

Devil's Playground a Documentary About

Words: 596
Length: 2 Pages
Type: Essay

The interviews appear to be unscripted, further emphasizing the authentic nature of the dialog. The filmmakers do not give themselves an audible voice, which implies that the voice…

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2 Pages
Essay

Drama - World

Environmental Economics in the Documentary

Words: 649
Length: 2 Pages
Type: Essay

This is because most industries will assemble containers, jugs and other products using non-ecofriendly chemicals. hen you try to recycle these materials is when the costs will increase…

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5 Pages
Response Essay

Law - Enforcement

A Death in St Augustine Documentary

Words: 1452
Length: 5 Pages
Type: Response Essay

Documentary Response: “A Death in St. Augustine” The nationwide and then global calls for racial justice erupted following the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020 by Minneapolis police…

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2 Pages
Essay

Anthropology

A Blank on the Map Documentary

Words: 683
Length: 2 Pages
Type: Essay

The documentary “A Blank on the Map” is interesting because it shows what happens when two worlds meet. The British explorers in the expedition into New Guinea to meet…

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2 Pages
Capstone Project

Film

Decline of Retail Documentary

Words: 634
Length: 2 Pages
Type: Capstone Project

Documentary Part 1 1. This film follows the daily workings of retailers in the dying bricks and mortar retail centers of an urban area. It pays particular attention to the piling…

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2 Pages
Essay

Literature

Battlefields and Big Macs Documentaries a Comparative

Words: 663
Length: 2 Pages
Type: Essay

Battlefields and Big Macs Documentaries A Comparative Analysis of Documentary Styles The role of documentary film in helping to shape and inform American culture has become increasingly apparent, especially in the last…

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