Watching documentaries is a great way to learn new things. These are films that shape and interpret facts for education and entertainment of their viewers. It has several social functions, which are to record, preserve, and reveal, and persuade. This form of motion films also aims to entertain and educate.
If you are struggling to write a good documentary essay, our experts have combined some helpful tips for you here. So, no need to worry.
First and foremost, you should find a topic. Focus on something you are genuinely passionate about. Think about the cause that matters to you: maybe it’s climate change, slavery, environmental cause, ocean pollution, or perhaps it’s something else. It is essential to find something that speaks to you. This way, you won’t struggle with composing your paper.
You can also find a list of essay topics for your documentary research below, checking our samples. Yet, to pick the right idea, we first need to understand what film types are available.
There are several genres of documentaries:
Expository documentaries. Such films present objective information with a ubiquitous presence. The filmmaker usually does not appear on the screen.
Poetic documentaries. They rely heavily on images and music rather than narration. That is to say, there is little verbal communication with the audience.
Essayistic documentaries. These movies feature an essay-like narration. The filmmaker relies both on speech and on the images to make their point.
Observational documentaries. They try to demonstrate an objective record of some activity. It almost does not have music and narration and tries to present the event as-it-is.
Participatory documentaries. The films are the complete opposite of observational ones. The filmmaker is an active participant in the movie. They appear on the screen and communicate the subject.
Performance documentaries. These movies feature a dramatic performance. It can be a concert, a play, or another performance event recorded in the form of a documentary.
Interview films. These are the records of a conversation between two or more people. It relies on communication on-screen to deliver the message rather than on images and music.
Dramatization. This type recreates an event using actors to bring the viewer to the event. Some argue that it is not a form of documentary.
Mixed documentaries. The films use different modes and techniques. It can combine poetic, expository, interview modes at the same time.
Animation films. Such movies are standard, too, and their most distinctive feature is the use of animation to present the material.
As for your documentary essay assignment, you can be asked to work with any documentary. Let’s figure out what tasks you will need to fulfill beforehand.
Documentary Review vs. Analysis
Not everyone understands the difference between a movie review and a movie analysis when watching movies and writing essays about the material. Sometimes these two terms are used interchangeably. Nevertheless, when it comes to grading and evaluating the paper, this difference is essential.
A film review essay is a “consumer-oriented” judgment that aims to recommend (or not) a movie. One can find documentary review essay examples in the newspapers, websites, or online databases.
An analysis of the film usually offers an interpretation and an evaluation of the movie. Some film theory is generally used as a framework to analyze and interpret the feature.
You can center your documentary essay assignment around not only a specific film but an entire genre of documentaries. You might be asked to write about a specific topic or an aspect of one movie in depth. Let’s try to see how it works!
How to Write a Documentary Essay
When you are asked to write an essay about a documentary, there are expectations. You will need to analyze specific elements in one film or a few.
No matter what your assignment is, we are here to help you nail it! Here is a short guide on how to write a documentary essay:
Watch the documentary (and take notes). We highly recommended watching the film several times before you start writing anything. Throughout this process, you should take notes to recall essential elements later on. Schematically express your ideas and arguments.
Choose your perspective. You need to understand the approach you will be using. However, your position should be supported by the examples and ideas from the film. Search for what others think and say on a similar issue and compare it to your thoughts.
Pick what to discuss. After that, you need to start collecting the examples and ideas from the movie that support your viewpoint. All these elements should eventually connect to the main focus of your paper. You can try to do some additional research but do not forget to return to the movie continually.
Outline your essay. The outline will help you stay within the word limit. This way, you’ll structure your thoughts and ideas on the paper before you start your essay. Plus, you will remain close to the intended format while writing.
Write it! Start with a brief introduction about the documentary and your thesis statement at the end of it. Then, evaluate the film, developing your arguments logically. In your conclusion, restate your position on the matter and list the critical points discussed.
Thank you for reading this article till the very end! We hope you found it helpful. Share this page with those who need our help. For your inspiration, you can check the list of documentary essay examples below.
🏆 Top 10 Documentary Essay Topics
The roles of documentaries in culture
The history of documentary film
Documentary and propaganda
Documentaries with and without words: compare and contrast
The documentary begins with an intriguing synopsis of the recent culmination of corporate scandals, and then it proceeds to ridicule the overriding media's analysis of this scandal "crisis" as the consequence of many "bad apples" [...]
The patients featured in the film present the excruciating pains and frustrations the patients without insurance covers face in American public hospitals.
In the film American Factory, Bognar and Reichert delve deep into the livelihoods of the American workers in Ohio and the problematic transition experienced by Chinese managers to American work culture and way of life.
The story of Jason Short demonstrates autonomy characterized by his independence and self-confidence, as he works alone and manages to help the members of his community without any support from other healthcare professionals.
The main task of this paper is to analyze the methods of testing provided by the Battle of the Brains: The Case for Multiple Intelligences and decide which participant can be considered as the smartest [...]
The other important themes accentuated in the film include mass incarceration, racism, social bias, the gender issue, the impact on the environment, the social impact, the ineffectiveness of a prison system, and education.
Instead, they are interesting in hopes for the future, hobbies, and activities that do not represent traditional gender bias. The effects of being raised with attention to gender bias are evident in their values and [...]
He is interviewed on his way to the station by Astra Taylor who is the director of the film. He is intriguing in his thoughts about philosophy and life.
In her 2009 documentary, Scarl provides the general audience with a glimpse of the world of deaf entertainers, thus helping shed light on the life and struggles of the broader deaf community.
I can compare A Thousand Roads to a dart thrown into the bullseye because the film achieved its two goals with surgical precision. Given the short yet meaningful form of A Thousand Roads, I composed [...]
This part concentrates on the changes the newly elected President Roosevelt was making to lead America out of the economic crisis, the alternatives to democracy that were being sought around the world, and Bernays' later [...]
Using the documentary "Inside Job", the paper presented below asserts that the malpractices of different banking experts, the ethical dilemma revolving around ratings agencies' actions, and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley and the Glass-Steagall Acts influenced the nature [...]
The documentary represents a detailed analysis of cases of Jacob, DJ, and Jessica intended to highlight the key dangers of prescribing powerful medication to children when treating psychiatric disorders.
The content of the documentary is proof that the Judiciary is a political playfield for the Democratic and the Republican parties as they struggle for control.
The film "Hot Coffee" informs the viewer about the facts surrounding the case. It informs the citizens why many corporations have continued to support this reform.
"Clive Wearing Living Without Memory" is a documentary that explains Clive's life and his struggle with a memory that cannot last for more than a few seconds.
The crash and the subsequent dismissal from the company catch the main character as well as thousands of others off-guard, completely breaking the rose-tinted lenses and awakening them to the reality of working in Enron.
On the one hand, it seems that the author rejects the notion of formal independence as he sees no sense in the so-called peaceful means; on the other hand, his assumption that intimidation and extreme [...]
The film Speaking in Tongues focuses on the experiences of four families with children in a DLI program in California, and interviews educators, researchers, and advocates who support and oppose bilingual education.
Shadyac wanted to tell everyone what he had come to know: that the world was a lie, and the activities which he had always considered to be improving it were, in fact, destroying it. I [...]
A particularly important point in the film is the last section, which discusses the involvement of the state and its representatives in the activities of corporations.
The central assumption of this study is that the work of director Ava Duvernay had the primary purpose of drawing public attention to the problem of modern slavery in the United States of America.
The Frontline documentary, "Supplements and Safety," provides a thorough and insightful description of the main problems existing in the supplement industry: safety, regulation, and efficacy.
Thus, to overcome the catastrophic events and to predict the worsening of the situation, it is important to answer questions about the causes of the processes and the ways to cope with the ecological crisis.
Commanding Heights: The Battle for the world Economy is a three-episode documentary from PBS alleging to inform viewers on the world economic history of the 20th century.
The instances of silence between the music are as imperative as the music itself. The film director seizes this opportunity to propose the theme of the film through as simple and a plain cut.
For instance, the film contributes to the discussion of healthy cooking and salads, as it advocates that healthier meals are the ones that contain no animal-based products or processed foods.
The overall essence of the film can be characterized as musically and visually complex due to the combination of seemingly separate worlds: Ra's deep philosophical monologues and the Arkestra's banter about Ra and his contribution [...]
The social issues that have been shown in the documentary are living condition of migrant workers in cities, the growing gap between the children and their absentee parents, and the change in the position of [...]
Thus, the active immigration processes and the 'invasion' of the Latinos in the USA are the logical consequences of the prolonged territorial expansion of the USA and its economic influence in the region that is [...]
Irish Catholics were also the subject of hate propaganda and were viewed as agents of the Vatican and the Pope; hysterical American Protestants used all means to stop the spread of Catholicism in America, and [...]
On the other hand, the sugars which are said to be in almost all McDonald's products, made Spurlock addicted to the food that he ate and made him always coming back for more.5.
After the Mayflower: We Shall Remain is a documentary that reveals the population's life with the colonists. It was important for the culture to get in contact with the colonizers so that they could help [...]
The documentary "Murder to Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story" follows the story of Cyntoia Brown, who was accused of killing and stealing from Johnny Allen in 2004.
Firstly the question of the awful performance of the government in dealing with the disaster and sufferings of people, and secondly the state sponsored ignorance of the masses who were made to suffer the horrifying [...]
One of the reasons why Native women account for a disproportionately large share of missing people in Western Canada, is that as compared to what it happened to be the case with Whites and the [...]
The documentary Mickey Mouse Goes to Haiti by the National Labor Committee explores this subject and reveals the unethical working conditions of the Walt Disney Company's garment factories in Haiti.
In "Thin Blue Line," Morris turns his attention to the wrongful conviction of Texan Randall Adams, who was arrested and prosecuted for the murder of a police officer instead of the actual murderer.
The intention involves showcasing life in the prisons as a deterrent to ensure the juveniles do not commit further crimes. The juveniles, such as Ben, admit that life in prison is scary and would have [...]
Jarad had a traumatic connection to seeing his stepfather try to commit suicide, while Juan grew up with the feeling that he was not accepted by his father and constantly felt that he competed with [...]
The documentary touched me emotionally with the multiple stories of the people who did not see the reason to live and ended their lives by jumping from the bridge.
Shot in Lagos, Nigeria, at the peak of Kuti's career, the film contains a series of heartfelt, sincere, and courageous interviews with the pioneer of the Afrobeat genre.
The third and last part of the film was released in 1998."The Decline of Western Civilization" is a documentary film that focuses on the evolution of the punk rock music genre as it changes from [...]
The 2012 Canadian film Stories We Tell is perceived to be the absolute truth and reality behind the family history of the writer and director Sarah Polley.
Psychological aspects of sex, including culture-specific sexual scripts and the influence of one's individual imagination and imposed sexual stereotypes in the media, are also explored.
Talking about the ethical side of the movie Super Size Me and its hard critics of McDonald's and the style of life offered by this company, it is necessary to admit that its author, Morgan [...]
During the event, the police force fails to turn up in time, a situation that gives the street children a good opportunity to harass and steal from the passengers.
The reason for this is apparent the deployment of such an approach will naturally prompt the audience to think of what is being discussed as such that directly relates to what happened to be their [...]
Specifically, the authors of the terms and conditions fraud theory address the issue as a secret strategy that hides the concrete objectives of a particular Internet company under the multiple pages of plain textual reiterations [...]
The issue of racism is introduced by the film's director right from the beginning. Therefore, by the end of the video the issue of race is already embedded in the mind of the viewer.
In turn, the weakness of this approach is that not much attention was paid to the formal elements of this movie and the techniques that the authors applied.
When the Levees Broke truly reveals that Lee was driven by the issues this tragedy addressed and incorporates all of the characteristics that distinguish his film style consciousness, talent, and passion.
The objective of this review is to evaluate the shortcomings of the FYRE event and identify the reasons that resulted in the event's catastrophic ending.
The documentary displays how excessive drinking can shadow one's perception of life, and how the addiction can hinder people's strive to act upon their need to better themselves.
The film is a documentary and shows the real life and the desire of the husband and wife to create their wonderful farm where they can grow vegetables and fruits, as well as have different [...]
Title of the film: Born into Brothels: Calcutta Red Light Kids Date released: January 17, 2004 Producers: Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman I selected this movie due to the controversies that surround it.
As competition continues to become fierce in the global market, more companies will be expected to engage in different malpractices thus threatening the lives of more people. Experts also believe that this problem will continue [...]
The definition of documentary films addresses such features as the level of control, the institutional base, the structure of texts, and the attitude towards viewers.
For instance, in the movie, 'Daughter from Danang', Heidi's adoptive mother plays a major role in terms of showing her the need to forego her Vietnamese culture in order to fit into the American way [...]
One of the things that attracted my attention is that women have to ensure the wellbeing of children almost independently, while their spouses do not have to take many responsibilities. This is one of the [...]
A robust private sector orientation is one of the strengths of the US healthcare system. There are quite a number of aspects in the Cuban healthcare system that the US healthcare ought to adopt.
The diamond trade is featured as a major setback in realization of peace and stability in poor nations. The film is commendable due to its distinctive focus on the diamond trade and other infamous events.
At the beginning of the film, different definitions of the corporation are provided, describing what contributed to their emergence, what made corporations powerful, what device they have, and their impact on people's lives.
The director claims that the United States and Puerto Rico's fates are intertwined. I knew the US and Puerto Rico have a paradoxical political, societal, economic, and territorial relationship.
The film delves into their lifestyles, values, and experiences, as well as examples of how social class influences hobbies, preferences, tastes, and overall life opportunities."The People Like Us" provides an insightful examination of America's social [...]
Some of the most interesting findings in the documentary relate to the public and system response to the offenders. However, this does not deny the significance of socioeconomic and other components in such predictions.
Undeniably, The Abortion Divide film adequately shows the gradual growth in differences between the pro-choice and pro-life supporters but fails to bring a solution to the moral problem of abortion.
The dominant gender role expectations for men and boys in contemporary society are that male persons are supposed to have physical power, dominant behavior, and be sexually active.
Housing segregation leads to the extraction of critical resources and wealth that propel social and economic mobility from Black communities, fastening a downward socioeconomic movement.
In addition, the interview with the mother of an athlete, who was prescribed painkillers and found dead because of overdose, persuades the target audience to think about the opioid crisis.
The film then traces the lives of the subjects from the bushveldt, where those on the high social class live, to the townships, where the black children live.
According to the documentary, hacking is of three different types: white hackers, black hackers, and grey hackers. On the other side, there are black hackers who use their hacking pedigree to extort money from innocent [...]
It will describe the foreign policy, hermetically sealed national policy, and the connection between the background learned from the book and the reality of what North Korea is in the 21st century.
A brief insight into the filming of the movie revealed that the mountain used to make the film was not only the actual Siula Grande of the Peruvian Andes but also Mount Blanc in the [...]
The documentary supports the argument that the interaction that introduced Japan to the rest of the world was critical in ensuring human rights and freedom of the most vulnerable classes in the society.
I think that the development of Scientific Racism and further Eugenics became the result of people's attempts to justify their unethical behavior toward other individuals and to support their material goals to develop slavery, and [...]
The systematic cover-ups of assault cases illuminate how patriarchy and the lack of accountability have made sexual violence against servicewomen to persist in the military.
The role of the media in entrenching aggression is apparent in Bowling for Columbine and Elephant. Studies by Daffern, Howells, & Ogloff and Rappaport & Thomas are instrumental in revealing the characters in Bowling for [...]
The title of the film "God Grew Tired of Us" is rather succinctly used by the film maker in order to help audiences understand the plight of the 3 main characters in the movie and [...]
The film explores how the rise of mammals reshaped the planet after the mass extinction of the dinosaurs. I liked how it showed the different stages of evolution and how the animals adapt to their [...]
Documentaries "Before the Flood," "The Story of Stuff," and "Rude Awakening" explore the cultural significance of oil while addressing the need for a transition from fossil fuels.
Thus, the images of Tom as the embodiment of non-resistance and the Mammy as the symbol of limited opportunities for African Americans serve as a reminder that stereotypes still persist in popular culture.
In this documentary, Chief Justice John Roberts discusses the principal goal of the Supreme Court and the West Plaza, the site of several public protests.
According to the documentary, exhumed gladiators from Ephesus and the claim that they were vegan are baseless on the findings of a single research project.
The documentary provides in-depth information on the arrests and interrogations of the suspects, the sentences, vacations of the convictions, and the interviews with the accused men.
Having learned that most doctors are "not trained in normal births" and that 90% of women are liable to be induced, I believe that birth in the United States is an unnatural process for the [...]
In my opinion, it is every retailer's and food manufacturing company's ethical responsibility to clearly mention not only all the preservatives but also the processing that a food has been subjected to so as to [...]
The database that is also indexed by the country name has a provision to find the title of the TV series or the movie by the first alphabet of the title.
However, the number of workplaces is almost the same; it means that the employer has a lot of choices, the demand for the worker's decreases as well as the price for labor.
The fact that they are comfortable and proud of their big size is amazing and leaves a considerable number of people to wonder what is there in fatness that the women should be proud of.
The candidates had to perform three tasks, and at the end of the presentation the students were given the responsibility to choose the next class monitor.
As the episode unfolds, we are introduced to the advent of the internet and other forms of technology which over time have led to the linking of the world in simple networks.
It begins with the Great Depression, and details the evolution and devolution of regulation of the financial industry over the next three quarters of a century.
Just as is the case in The Harvest-La Cosecha documentary, McClelland reveals that the online-shipping business in the US targets vulnerable pool of people to offer cheap labor without asking questions.
While the film focuses on the events on the battleground, it equally provides the viewers with a parallel story of the families and wives of the soldiers in the war as they grief for their [...]
The documentary's goal is to make people aware of the horrors that are still taking place in Uganda, the work completed by the organization called TRI and to make people join the community of those [...]
The case involves four ex-soldiers from the US Marines accused and convicted of the murder of Michelle Bosko in 1997. Critics argue that The Confessions reveals the weaknesses of the American justice system.
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