Propaganda represents an extreme example of biased selectivity in which a filmmaker uses documentary to promote a distorted or one-sided perspective to achieve certain goals. During wartime, documentaries are constructed in a way that transform “the enemy” into the object of hatred and anger and the sponsoring country into a heroic, virtuous agent of good. For example, the documentary, Triumph of the Will, directed by Leni Riefenstahl was made to glorify the Nazi regime and Hitler as the admired leader who will unify the German people as a master race.

For example, Hitler is shown as a god-like figure descending out of the clouds in an airplane that lands and then Hitler attends a hugh stadium rally in which he is portrayed giving a speech, using camera angles to show him as above the admiring crowd.

Similarly, Riefenstahl’s Olympia documentary of the 1936 Olympic games attempted to portray the German athletes as superior representatives of Aryan manhood, despite the fact that Jesse Owen, the American black athlete, was very successful.

Students could study various examples of documentaries and news footage that functioned as propaganda. For example, they could examine clips of propaganda films in terms of the analysis techniques on the following sites:

Propaganda: Introduction and examples

Propaganda in the Classroom [ Bill Chapman Classroom Tools: lots of articles/examples ]

Institute for Propaganda Analysis

Centre for the Study of Propaganda, University of Kent [ lots of links to examples ]

Webquest: Propaganda Techniques in Advertising, Media, Politics & Warfare [ Don and Lin Donn ]

Webquest: Propaganda and War

Webquest: create a documentary about World War I

Propaganda related to the Iraq War

Module 11: Word document

Traditional versus Cinema Verite Documentary

Cinema Verite Documentary

Propaganda Documentary:
Blatant Selectivity

The Docudrama

Mock Documentary

Music Documentaries

Sports Documentaries

Televised Documentaries

Reality Television

Documentary and Cultures

Studying Social Issues or Topics through Documentary

Student-Produced Documentaries

References