Good morning/afternoon fellow documentary filmmakers. Within Documentary film, we understand that documentaries have a powerful impact on an audience. The effectiveness of the documentary will aim to evoke thought-provoking and life-changing responses in the audience. Today, my presentation will be a demonstration of this and explore the documentary That Sugar Film as a relevant example of this. Today I will analyze and evaluate key elements from this film to see how powerful it is as a tool for change.
That Sugar Film documents filmmaker, Damon Gameau through his solo journey to discover the effects of eating foods that are perceived as ‘healthy’, however contain high amounts of sugar. The Australian film was released in February 2015, written
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In the beginning of That Sugar Film, Gameau informs the audience of his interests in finding out why eating ‘low fat foods’ is actually making us fatter. The documentary follows Gameau’s journey as he consumes ‘healthy’ foods for thirty days, and we see how much of an impact it has on his body within such a short period of time. Black and white footage and archival film footage was used, along with interviews and juxtaposition.
As propaganda, That Sugar Film is often powerfully effective, going in especially hard against soft drink manufacturers, and exposing some of the dubious claims of the health food industry. From the outset, the audience is positioned to feel shocked and the way they think about ‘healthy’ food is forever changed. Controversial construction of the subject matter presents an experience of the appalling and gruesome situation that communities of people are left in after the vast consumption of high sugar soft drinks. An interview of a 17-year-old who has lost all his teeth due to an addiction that locals call "Mountain Dew Mouth." has been used at this point in the documentary. An extreme-close-up shot is used to magnify the removal of his teeth, positioning the viewers to feel uncomfortable and nervous, highlighting the damaging health effects. This strong appeal to emotion is effective in a way that it makes the audience question drinking soft drink and have a critical view of how destructive sugar can