Ah, my final blog. This class has been a blast for me. Any class where you get to watch and analyze anything related to film is always awesome to me. The documentaries we watched has actually made me go out and buy several documentaries. I always had this set thought that all documentaries were boring with lots of talking and nothing else, I never saw anything to relate to in them. That is all changed due to some of the documentaries we watched.

Sherman's March radically changed the idea of in my mind that a documentary must be about something that has already happened, and not about something that is happening. All the documentaries I watched up to this class normally contained interview upon interview with people talking about certain events or events, and most of the time they were all relating to one theme or idea. Sherman's March goes against both of these disbeliefs in that it documents someone's own life journey, not some ancient history. There is nothing that really ties the people that Ross Mcelwee interviews together beyond the fact they are people that he encounters in his life, which is a very loose similarity. Also, they aren't experts on some kind of historical event, they are just everyday people living their lives. I really had no clue that documentaries could be about such things.

Grizzly Man opened up my mind to the idea that documentaries about a singular person don't have to be about historical figures, they can be about someone who has died recently. It also made me realize that documentaries will not always present with you a nonbias, 3rd person kind of viewpoint on the event. Werner Herzog is constantly stating his own thoughts about Timothy Treadwell throughout the film, though they are often short. It did reveal to me that people who set out to make documentaries must have already a strong interest in the subject. All the history documentaries I would watch on tv would always seem like they were just made for the money and because they were assigned to the director, Grizzly Man felt nothing like that. It feels like Herzog set out to make the film because Timothy Treadwell was a man who truely interested him and that he had a desire to share Treadwell's story with the world. There wasn't a single moment in the film that felt like Herzog was just doing it for the money.

Triumph of The Will just emphasized the idea of the bias documentary to me. It also showed me that sometimes documentaries are not always created to tell the truth, but are sometimes made to create support for someone. It is honestly the first film that I have seen that I truly consider a propaganda film. I am thankful for this class to have revealed to me this world most of all as now I view every documenatry I watch with a careful eye to see if the directors intentions are 100% honest. I always ask now, is the film maker trying to persuade me into a certain way of thinking or are they just merely presenting these events for what they are?

I feel like this is a rather weak blog to go out on. Favorite lists are such a cliche but I really wanted to get across how much I enjoyed this class. Thanks again Mr. Brewer.