Hey there, documentaries. How are you doing? It’s Eric.
From your origins with “Nanook of the North,” the very first documentary, to the modern documentaries of today, the non-fiction films we have come to know all fit a similar sort of pattern. You aim to tell the true story of either a phenomenal event or person, or to cover the basic goings-on of a rather ordinary person, place or concept to give viewers a better perspective.
I’m writing to you today, documentaries, because I’ve heard some good things about you recently. HBO’s “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief” has been getting significant praise. The Tribeca Film Festival has quite a few good documentaries slated to premiere in the next two weeks, before being distributed throughout the country. Documentaries made last year are still being talked about, with HBO’s “Citizenfour” still influencing discussions about government surveillance. With all these praises, one would think documentaries are really popular, but alas, they aren’t. People just are not going to see documentaries.
Maybe it’s because, as children, people got a bad taste of documentaries from the educational pieces that were played in classrooms, or from the overtly sensationalized pseudo-documentaries that play on television that do not really do the term justice. Maybe it’s because people don’t want to sit down and spend an hour or two of their lives learning from you.
Personally, I think it’s the latter reason. People are so used to quick snippets of information now. On Facebook, the trending section gives people a few sentences of what news is trending and why. If someone wants to read more about it, they can, but this sidebar gives them the basics right away. Obviously, these short snippets are much easier and quicker to read. It is a fair excuse if someone does not really care about the subject matter you documentaries have to teach, but we live in an age where cameras are so widespread that almost anyone can make a film about anything they want. This is even truer of documentaries, as these films cover every topic imaginable. Want to find out about the recent financial collapse of America? There’s “Inside Job.” Want an hour and a half on the lives of penguins? Check out Academy Award-winner “March of the Penguins.” If for some reason anyone wants an oddly specific film about Coca-Cola bottles, that’s currently in the works and will be available in a year or so. With all of these options, it seems as if people would at least be watching some documentaries.
But for whatever reason, you aren’t as popular or as frequently watched as fiction films. However, there are a few recent documentaries that have somewhat broken this mold. “Blackfish,” which details the mistreatment of orca whales at Sea World, has grossed about $2 million. “Exit Through The Gift Shop,” the story of a graffiti artist, became fairly popular and ended up grossing upwards of $3 million, but this might be contested, as this film is not considered a documentary in a fair percentage of Hollywood. “Super Size Me” grossed $11 million. Heck, Michael Moore’s “Bowling for Columbine” grossed almost twice as much as “Whiplash” did, and that film won three Oscars even though it was the lowest grossing Best Picture nominee this year. Apart from these exceptions, documentaries greatly underperform compared to narrative films at the box office. This is truly sad because you documentaries can be just as entertaining as fiction films.
Look back for any recent documentary that was not made for television, and there’ll surely be one that is interesting, fun and educational. Now, I love to watch narrative films as much as anybody else, but I feel it is truly important to mix in a documentary every now and then. If not for the entertainment value of the films, then for the educational value I will get from the same amount of allotted time. People can watch one on any topic that interests them and it will enrich their lives that much more. Documentaries, just keep doing what you are doing.
Sincerely,
Eric Moots
