Hope to Have the Opportunity to Cooperate Again
Ken Burns' Benjamin Franklin — the documentary filmmaker'south latest deep swoop into an of import effigy in American history — is now out on PBS. When I heard the film was coming out, I got excited. Through the magic of filmmaking, documentaries like this 1 can make the by come live. They can have historical scholarship and turn it into an exciting drama. The music rises and falls; yous tin can't help but feel carried away.
That feeling is pretty compelling; it's likewise tough to permit become of it. Historical documentaries try to brand you lot experience like yous've been through an experience, and that now yous understand, but I recollect that feeling is a little dangerous. It'due south and then of import that nosotros learn about the events of the past, just it's also really of import that we don't call back nosotros know everything. More and more than, nosotros seem to be looking to history as a source of entertainment, and that has all kinds of complicated implications in how we call up most the past.
Looking to the Past for Certainty
You may take noticed that there are a whole lot of documentaries around these days. It feels similar every time I peek at the offerings on Netflix or other streaming services, I'm presented with options for everything from true-crime docs virtually serial killers to docuseries about cults to deep dives on historical figures like the same Benjamin Franklin.
There are, of course, lots of reasons why so many documentaries are getting made. To be certain, the pandemic has been a huge cistron, simply beyond that I wonder if we're also craving a kind of settled narrative that simply isn't available to united states of america in the present moment. Life is pretty confusing these days. We're living through global health crises, wars, divisive politics, and the terrifying implications of ongoing climate change. It feels really hard to know anything.
Under those circumstances, you tin see the entreatment of plopping yourself downwardly in front of something like a history documentary. You spotter, and you lot go to feel like you know the story of something that happened. The past, in that way, can feel settled and certain in a style that feels comfortable to us in the present.
The Positive Side of History every bit Entertainment
There are, of grade, some expert things near all of this. The best documentaries ask compelling questions and leave u.s. feeling a sense of wonder most the world. When I was a child, I recollect being then bored in history classes that I thought I had no interest in the topic whatsoever. As an adult, I've become really interested in the history of the American Civil War, but I remember blowing off unabridged reading assignments on the subject area in high school.
The success of historical documentaries like Burns' The Civil State of war, dated and problematic as information technology undeniably is, is admittedly part of why I've come to realize that I really love learning about the past. With so many documentaries available — and the proliferation of history podcasts and companies like MasterClass that sit down on the edge of education and entertainment — it's more than possible than e'er for people to realize, outside of the context of school, that they actually relish learning. The risk is that these learning opportunities tin can atomic number 82 to a situation where the ascendant historical narrative is being curated by people and companies driven past profit rather than by the rigors of historical research and truth.
How Nosotros Feel About the Past
Equally who we are changes, how we experience about who we used to exist changes too. Contemporary criticisms of Burns' The Civil War are a good case of this. Burns himself has admitted that he "would probably exist making a different kind of film now," from the 1 he made in 1990. The flick he made, though, was incredibly influential, and for many people it concretized a lot of what the American Civil War became in our collective retentivity.
There is a lot of fantabulous material in the documentary, just unfortunately, on the whole, its conception of the American Civil State of war itself is deeply flawed. From perpetuating the idea that the war was most a failure to compromise to the idea that a man like Robert E. Lee "disapproved" of slavery, The Civil War presents a limited and occasionally troubling perspective. That perspective becomes even more than problematic when it becomes the dominant mode the state of war itself is remembered. It takes a lot of time and energy to undo these misconceptions — to assist people open their minds to the idea that things might have been different than how they were portrayed.
History Isn't But Facts
In the end, it's important to think that history is a bailiwick and a discourse. History isn't simply a set of facts that we receive and know how to interpret, but an ongoing conversation that happens over time. That conversation changes, as I said above, based on who we are and what we value in a given menstruation. It also changes based on how the facts are presented and who controls the ability to nowadays them.
Documentaries are not, by and large, conversations; they are statements. The best ones — and Burns' Benjamin Franklin might very well end up existence one of these — encourage united states of america to explore further and to ask more questions. They might even exit us feeling a little unsettled, like we aren't certain whether the great historical figures of the past are heroes or villains. That's a adept thing, because nigh of the fourth dimension, the figures of the by are neither. They are people, like us, full of flaws and doubts. Hopefully, when we acquire about them, we learn about the importance of being willing to change our minds and ourselves.
Source: https://www.ask.com/tvmovies/when-we-look-to-history-for-entertainment?utm_content=params%3Ao%3D740004%26ad%3DdirN%26qo%3DserpIndex
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