Author Archives: basiltsiokos

Dear Documentary Filmmakers: It’s not “cute” to interview kids about your film’s topic. If it’s not about them, leave them out.

Add this one to the list of trends that I’ve noticed over the past year or two – a film is about something decidedly unrelated to kids, say campaign finance reform or the plight of the endangered Siberian musk deer, yet the filmmaker thinks s/he should get the opinions of some precocious tots. Maybe the filmmaker thinks this would be somehow endearing, or, instead, ironically underscore how simple the answer to a problem is but that adults are missing it – “out of the mouths of babes,” as it were.

Generally – it’s overused, it’s not original, and it’s not effective. If the topic doesn’t have a direct, tangible, and justifiable connection and bearing on the people you interview, why should an audience care what they have to say? The same goes for other interview subjects, not just kids, of course, but it strikes me as much more deliberately manipulative when kids are dragged in.

If your topic does have an impact on children, then, by all means, consider interviewing them. However, even in this case, there’s only so much of a Cindy Brady lisp to which an audience will want to be subjected – look beyond their cuteness factor and how you think it will influence viewers and try to select articulate, intelligible child interviewees. Cuteness only goes so far – if you want your points to be taken seriously, remember who you’re attempting to reach, and do so intelligently.

Dear Documentary Filmmakers: You’re not a high school debater- don’t start your film with a dictionary definition – trite.

This is a pet peeve, I’ll admit, but it shows up so often I’m sure it’s a pet peeve for a lot of programmers and probably for a fair amount of viewers.

My memories of high school speech and debate competitions almost all include a fast-talking kid beginning by saying something like “Skepticism. Merriam-Webster defines ‘skepticism’ as…” On the doc side, I have seen far too many films opening in a similar manner, often with a card literally offering a dictionary entry of the film’s title or of some key concept or theme, such as “pe•dant•ic: 1: of, relating to, or being a pedant; 2: narrowly, stodgily, and often ostentatiously learned; 3: unimaginative, pedestrian.”

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Dear Documentary Filmmakers: Competition docs are now their own genre- to stand out they must transcend their own conventions.

I have a confession to make – I take more than my fair share of guilty pleasure in numerous competition-based reality TV shows (TOP CHEF, PROJECT RUNWAY, THE AMAZING RACE, BIG BROTHER, etc etc) – they’re a fun, simple escape from thinking about the larger issues that I’m so often confronted with in many of the films that I watch. Of course, I appreciate lighter or non-issue-driven documentaries as well, but one thing that tends to strike me when I see competition-oriented docs is that they too easily fall into the conventions of reality TV. Maybe it’s a personal thing for me, based on my admitted escapist use of reality TV, but this results in a certain lack of full engagement with or appreciation for these kinds of documentaries.

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