Video and Resistance: Against Documentaries

Originally photography was intended to be visual replications of truth, however, this is not the case. The artists look at documentaries, and how they are supposed to be accurate representations of real life events, yet they are just another form of propaganda. Images and commentary are paired together to give the viewer a sense of only one view existing towards a story. The flow of a documentary gives the viewer no chance to question or interpret the story for themselves, and only to follow along.

The artists describe how photography's original purpose was to be concrete evidence for truth that cannot be found in people's memories. Memories are easily distorted, but with a photograph you get a true representation of a piece of history. Sontag shares a similar view of what photos are and describes them as "not only an image,...an interpretation of the real;it is also a trace, something directly stenciled off the real, like a footprint or a death mask." Sontag also believes that "photographic images are pieces of evidence in an ongoing biography or history." According to the artists, that is the idea behind documentaries. Documentaries are a collection of images to display history as if one actually witnessed it. Both Sontag and the artists view photos in a similar way, as something more concrete than a drawing or a memory, but an actual replication of a moment of time and that photos are a powerful and versatile tool with many uses.