Documentary films for education and development

We may have not practiced our undergrad degree, but I feel proud that you were able to find your niche in the BPO industry and doing excellently at it! As I was reading your reply to Arden’s comment, I was reminded that our undergrad course was not only about Scriptwriting, Directing, Production Design, Editing or Acting. We also had a Documentary class. Documentaries give us a glimpse of reality.

The documentary is made to inform with the ultimate purpose of furthering social progress. For example, the documentary “ Supersize Me” shows the effect of consuming McDonald’s for a month. It also explores how the fast food industry encourages poor nutrition for its own profit. 6 weeks after the film’s debut, McDo dropped its Supersize portions and started posting nutritional facts for its food. Another docu – “ Bowling for Columbine” looks into the culture of violence using guns in the US. After this, K-Mart considered changing their policy on the selling of bullets. Yes, film is quite an expensive medium, yet digital has democratized the industry. Basically, anyone who has a phone or a digicam can capture a moving image. Devcom practitioners can also maximize this audio-visual medium to send out development messages. Quoting from the book “ Communication for Sustainable Development” by B. Balaswamy in 2006 “ Experts think that film can educate, inspire, motivate people and change their attitudes and behavior. Film being such an influential mass communication medium, it has its due role to play in sustainable development by depicting, exposing, criticizing, advising, inspiring, conscientizing, sensitizing, changing the counter-productive social relations and in molding a lifestyle that is essential for sustainable development. Almost every developing country produces films, mostly short films in the form of newsreels or documentaries for the purpose of making people know, understand and appreciate its development projects.

However, these films by and large, fail either to enthuse or motivate the people. Because they adopt a public relations approach, whereby the achievement alone is highlighted and credit for the achievement is given to an individual, group, organization or government. Therefore, instead of the publicity nature, films aiming at development should be educative in nature with entertainment. Development films should always portray identifiable local environment, local characters, local problems and locally tried solutions. Depending on the audience composition, films relevant to that audience should be screened. For instance, before the commencement of an adult movie, an educative short film on AIDS or contraceptives can be shown”.