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So I know, thanks, before you tell me, that a documentary must have a
"POV" or point of view and that it must also impose a narrative line.
But if you leave out absolutely everything that might give your
"narrative" a problem and throw in any old rubbish that might support
it, and you don't even care that one bit of that rubbish flatly
contradicts the next bit, and you give no chance to those who might
differ, then you have betrayed your craft. If you flatter and
fawn upon your potential audience, I might add, you are patronizing
them and insulting them. By the same token, if I write an article and
I quote somebody and for space reasons put in an ellipsis like this
(...), I swear on my children that I am not leaving out anything that,
if quoted in full, would alter the original meaning or its
significance. Those who violate this pact with readers or viewers are
to be despised. At no point does Michael Moore make the smallest
effort to be objective.  At no moment does he pass up the chance of a
cheap sneer or a jeer. He pitilessly focuses his camera, for minutes
after he should have turned it off, on a distraught and bereaved
mother whose grief we have already shared.
		-- Christopher Hitchens, "Unfahrenheit 9/11", Slate,
		   2004-06-21
		   http://www.slate.com/id/2102723

Tags: audience objective documentary pointofview token grief slate pact rubbish pov fawn michaelmoore sneer ellipsis jeer spacereasons christopherhitchens narrativeline