Documentary Essay (Argument Opposing Arguments and Rebuttal): “Summarize a relevant critic’s opposition to your argument and then refute it with reasons of your own”. Custom Essay

    In this essay I will ask you to choose a documentary of any kind and then argument that the documentary misrepresents the truth. You may choose to follow your thesis statement with the kind of supporting reasons we have used in other essays such as: the omission of facts or other relevant information, distractions, with the use of irrelevant or trivial information, outright lying, an emphasis on pathos over logos, visual misrepresentations of the truth, changing the context or timeline of real life events, or the use of constructed narratives that twist or distort the story. There may be, of course, other supporting reasons that you discover as you analyze your documentary. Be sure to utilize the film critique handout I sent you.

    In the film Taxi to the Dark Side, the 2007 best documentary feature, for example, you could make the argument that this film misrepresents the truth by omitting certain facts, creates a ‘dark’ narrative that wasn’t true in all torture cases while being visually unfair to the context of the Afghanistan conflict. The film is a stunning indictment against the use of torture by American soldiers just after 911. But in some ways it doesn’t capture the confusion and rage that most Americans felt after 911, and therefore, doesn’t capture the emotional context of the images that we see. For many Americans torture seemed like a viable tool because of the tragedy of 911, and they view films like Taxi to the Dark Side as a representation of events that offers aid to our enemies. The film attempts to answer these concerns, but certainly, for some, the film doesn’t do enough.
    Before you begin the essay you will need to find out what category to place the film in. Is it a war, nature, biographical, political, historical, or cultural documentary, for example? You may want to begin by writing about other documentaries in your film’s category to establish context and expectations for the film. As for research, you may use any one of the essays or articles in chapter 7 while utilizing terms such as the ones we talked about from the articles in class like humanitarian, chaos, socialist internationalism narratives or the examination of the documentary gaze, the placement of characters and objects in the frame, or finally, the number of people or characters in frame and their significance. And, of course, there are some great websites out there where you can find critics of your film such as imdb.com or rottentomatoes.com. Good luck!

    Here is the classical outline of the essay:

    Introduction: establish the context for the film by talking about events or reasons for the making of the film or other films that are in the film’s category and the criteria that make up these kinds of films. Give your thesis here as well as any supporting reasons.
    Body: Argue effectively each supporting reason as topic sentences while utilizing evidence from your analysis of the film or other related research.

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