The despotic rulers with a knack for giving out death sentences, the hurried discussions in Bletchley Park and the final decisions of the jury are what documentaries are about! They are windows to the soul which offers a wide range of perspectives to a particular event and serves as a fruitful tool to instruct and educate the masses. Documentaries such as the Revelation of the Pyramids, the She Wolves of England and the World War in colour are a few examples that provide ample of information about a certain era or event that has shaped the history of the world. Many documentaries have been surfacing the Internet based on social and economic disparities as well as the covert sexism and racism that our society seems to be plunged in. We have asked a few people regarding the purpose of documentaries and their favourites!
Arundhati Dutta, a BA student of Christ University says that she is someone who likes to amass a lot of knowledge, regardless of whether she will use it or not. She further says, “I have interests in a variety of fields and I like to watch documentaries to get more knowledge about these subjects. I get a lot of general knowledge on stuff and I have a morbid interest in the macabre. I have a few favourites which are Inside Chernobyl which is about the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and I was completely obsessed with it and watched a lot of documentaries on it. I also liked Pakistan’s Hidden Shame which is about child sexual abuse of poor boys in Pakistan and the cycle of abuse.”
Vidisha Mishra, a BA student of Christ University, says that she usually prefers documentaries over TV shows because they are more real and there is no dramatisation included in them. She opines, “In adocumentary, the director tries to keep it as real and original as possible. We learn how an event must have taken place which is more close to reality. It gives me more input to the process of the events and sometimes, the magnitude of it. Meru is my favourite documentary which is about three mountaineers who choose to climb the shark’s fin route of Meru central.”
Farah S, a dentist, points out that she doesn’t prefer documentaries over TV shows but she enjoys watching the former because she wants to see how different personalities adapt to situations and how people in other parts of the world are able to adapt to things that we don’t have to deal with. She further says, “It’s more real and people who watch documentaries are able to see the bigger picture of things and there are can be so many documentaries on one particular topic and in that way, I’m exposed to different visions of the same topic. I like the documentaries made by this YouTube channel called Real Stories.”
Documentaries play an important role in giving out information and it presents a side or multiple sides that broadens our perspective. So we must give documentaries a chance as it helps shape public opinion!
—Aamina Shabeer
