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There's something special about documentaries -- you can convince the audience of practically anything if you're a good enough director. My favorite case is th
by kenning 9y ago
There's something special about documentaries -- you can convince the audience of practically anything if you're a good enough director.
My favorite case is the Errol Morris documentary Mr. Death. It follows the story of a man who went from an electric chair technician to a holocaust denier. Morris attempted to direct the movie from the subject's perspective so that the audience could understand how you could slowly become a holocaust denier.
When he showed the movie to a Harvard film class, half the class believed that Morris himself was a holocaust denier, and the other half of the class believed the subject's (holocaust denying) side of the story, specifically that the Auschwitz gas chambers never actually had poison gas in them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Death:_The_Rise_and_Fall_of_Fred_A._Leuchter,_Jr.#Background https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Death:_The_Rise_and_Fall_o...
- hansjorg 9y agoAnother good one is Dark Side of the Moon where amongst others Henry Kissinger, Donald Rumsfeld and Alexander Haig explain how the Apollo 11 moon landing was faked. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Side_of_the_Moon_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Side_of_the_Moon_(film)
- flukus 9y agoI must confess to falling for that one briefly (In my defense, I was half asleep at the time), they start off using very cagey language so it seems like what you'd expect in a real interview but by the end theiry're blatant enough to be unbelievable. A more recent one was a Mermaid mockumentary, even though they are honest about being completely fictional in the credits there are still people that believe they were real documentaries sadly.
- dailyvijeos 9y agoAdvertising/PR manufactures beliefs, values, preferences and consent every day. Most people these days forgot or were not aware of how they were brainwashed by content or by other people into internalizing what they believe.
- kenning 9y agoDocumentaries are just on another level, in my opinion, because they take on the style of what you've learned in school. People expect advertisements to be fake, which is why they have to be so postmodern now.
- telesilla 9y agoPeter Jackson also managed to fool many television watchers with Forgotten Silver: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgotten_Silver#Reception https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgotten_Silver#Reception
- Joeboy 9y agoThe BBC's spaghetti harvest documentary from April 1 1957: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVo_wkxH9dU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVo_wkxH9dU
- Sag0Sag0 9y agoOne reason for such a large crop is the virtual disappearance of the spaghetti weevil. Classic.
- emmelaich 9y agoAnother one, from the Australian 60 minutes. http://skepdic.com/carlos.html http://skepdic.com/carlos.html "'Carlos' was the name of a 2,000-year-old spirit allegedly channeled by José Alvarez when he toured Australia in 1988." The hoaxing presenter (Richard Carleton) did not even tell his co-hosts and they were pretty mad at him.
- Joeboy 9y agoIn a similar vein, BBC's Ghostwatch: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostwatch#Controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostwatch#Controversy
- Shivetya 9y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti-tree_hoax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti-tree_hoax https://youtu.be/tVo_wkxH9dU https://youtu.be/tVo_wkxH9dU that hoax is my favorite because the BBC did it. I will let each enjoy the the story and video
- peterbotond 9y agoFascinating
- TazeTSchnitzel 9y ago> There's something special about documentaries -- you can convince the audience of practically anything if you're a good enough director. The reception of Adam Curtis films speaks to this.