Documentaries

     Nichols writes, "The fact that there is more than one mode of documentary film strongly suggests that the representation of reality is not an objective, cut-and-dried affair. Although there may be only one historical world, and even if certain facts about it can be agreed upon as objectively true, the ways of seeing and representing that world, like the ways of interpreting it, vary considerably."

• Based on this statement, blog about what exactly you think this means and how the 6 modes of documentary film factor into this idea.

     What Nichols is trying to say is that a historical event can be interpreted differently by the view depending on the filmmaker's perspective on the subject. In the expository mode, the viewer is guided through a documentary by a voice the he or she only hears but never sees the narrator of the film. in this mode and like the poetic mode, the purpose is to build up the views emotions to think one thing. Unlike the poetic and expository mode, with the observational mode an entire event's outcome is capture throughout the film and lacks the filmmaker's interactions. The observational and participatory modes are similar but in the participatory mode, the filmmaker interacts with his subjects. A filmmaker using the participatory mode may ask individuals unexpected questions. With the reflexive mode, the film may consist of actors that portray the actual individuals that had been in a certain historical event. With such a variety of modes in the documentary film world, filmmakers can create films that provide the viewer with different perspectives.