Category: General

10 Oct 2023 14:50

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Are documentary films redundant today?

During our school days, a couple of times we were shown black-and-white documentary films in the large assembly hall. The film would depend on the class the students were studying in. Thus, for example, younger classes would see a short documentary on basic hygiene and good manners, those in middle school would be shown a documentary film related to India's freedom movement, or other news documentaries, and students of secondary school would watch one related to health issues related to their age group. In terms of conveying information and even an educational goal, these documentaries were really good. There was always an open discussion and a Q&A session after the film screening with the teachers.

Even when we went to a cinema theater, there would always be a documentary film before the main movie started. Today, for many years now, black-and-white documentary films are no longer shown in cinema theatres. Any idea if they are screened in government or private schools today? Have documentary films lost their relevance and become redundant?

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#775276

10 Oct 2023 17:41

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When we were in school, documentary films were great source of information and entertainment for us and we viewed them as seriously as today we are viewing some blockbuster film. At that time the district information office was arranging the documentary film shows in the lanes of the town where people used to sit on the ground and enjoyed that. Once a while they presented black and white feature film also and many people gathered to view that.
Today we are moving with a smartphone in our hand and everything is available there on the go and so I don't see if anyone is interested in viewing a documentary film.

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#775298

11 Oct 2023 14:50

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That is true. I think documentary films are not being shown in schools. In the high school, I studied, there was an assembly hall and we used to assemble there for meetings and other programmes. In a year once or twice they were showing these documentary films. In junior college also I saw some documentary films. But afterwards, I had no chance to watch them.
As mentioned by the author these days we are not seeing them anywhere. Documentary films are very informative and I remember seeing the documentary on the freedom struggle in our school. These days YouTube is there and all sorts of videos are being posted there. I don't know whether these short documentary films may be available there.
One documentary film made on smoking in which the present head coach of the Indian cricket team was also there was shown in a movie hall 5 years back.

drrao
always confident

#775334

12 Oct 2023 07:19

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In earlier days, as stated by the author, there were some documentary films or educational films before the actual movies. I got the opportunity of watching some very good, useful and informative documentaries in this way. But with the passage of time, when I became regular to watch cinema (bunking my school-college-university classes), I developed the habit of timing my entry in the cinema hall just before the actual movie. We (my friends and myself) started skipping the documentary films.

Due to this practice adopted by almost all cine-goers, now documentary films are not run by the cinema hall owners. Instead of documentaries, the hall-owners show advertisements which provide them some extra money.

The present generation doesn't need documentaries, because they get information from almost all subjects from the YouTube channels.

However, many people like us may not be knowing that in the film-festivals organized in India and abroad, there is a separate section for documentary films. A cine-lover, rather a documentary-lover gets opportunity of watching the best documentaries of the world in the documentaries section of the film-festivals.

I have watched many wonderful and brilliantly-made documentaries on different subjects in different film-festivals.

(a) Those who have forgotten Noakhali, how can they protest Sandeshkhali?
(b) Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it. ---------- Salvador Dali

Are documentary films redundant today?

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