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Objectivity In Documentary Film

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Scholars like Bill Nichols, Michael Chanan, and Jane Chapman argue that the filmmaker’s subjectivity inevitably corrupts any possibility for the attainment of objectivity and that no absolute truth or reality can be captured in documentary film; while scholars like Stephen Mamber and filmmakers who ascribed to the schools of cinema verite and direct cinema suggest that objectivity is attainable through filming real people in uncontrolled situations.

“Documentary presents first-hand experience and fact by creating rhetoric of immediacy and ‘truth’, using technology, which involves the cameras. Part of the complications that surrounds the question of subjectivity and objectivity is rooted in the early claim that the camera does not lie”(Chapman, 2009)
According to Nichols (2006), “documentary film is an art on expression and the documentarian’s concern is not to simply entertain but to win an audience’s assent.” Also, “due to the fact that there is an absence of fictionalized elements as one of documentary features, many people tend to believe that it brings us nearer to the truth.” (Chapman, 2009)
Nonetheless, it is still essential for audiences to begin watching documentary with a critical eye as it could be just as carefully constructed and structured. ‘’Documentary is a fiction film like no other’’ (Nichols, 2001).

Many factors can …show more content…

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