Documentary Expression and its Influences

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses documentaries as a form of expression which were introduced in the New Deal era and the Depression era. These were times when the nation needed hope and needed to understand the tragedy and stress they were going through. Documentaries were also a mode of transcribing history and revealing realistic the situation to gain a future understanding of the time. The documentary mode of expression was as much for the people as it was for the government. This paper studies this matter in-depth and concludes that the documentaries and history at the time were stated clearly from the governmental point of view.

From the Paper:

"When we view the media forms of the times we realize the strength the people had in that era. As the generation of the future we realize that while the generation of the past was termed as the "Greatest generation" it can also be called and at times is termed as the "Lost Generation." Today, the youth are shown as disgruntled and violent but though the nationalism prominent in the past may overshadow the turbulence, the fact remains that a thorough analysis of the documentaries will show that the past too had its share of problems. It is said that the media of every era will portray the society and culture of its times. A study of the 1930s media reports shows that the Depression era was not as 'great' for the people living in it. ''(A) generation, numbering in the millions, has gone so far in decay that it acts without thought of social responsibility,'' historians George Leighton and Richard Hellman proclaimed in a much-quoted Harper' s Monthly article in 1936. ''High-school kids are armed, out for what they can get . . . . The Lost Generation is even now rotting before our eyes.'' In 1935, Columbia University President Nicholas Butler summed up the grave ''youth problem'': ''Day by day the newspapers report one grave crime after another, one moral delinquency after another, and one dereliction of duty after another.'' "

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