| |
Unfortunately, documentaries are rarely shown on commercial television,
largely because they are too controversial or might challenge some
of the corporate interests of commercial television advertisers.
This is why many of the best documentaries are found on PBS or non-commercial
cable challenges such as HBO.
|
The premier television documentary series is Frontline
that examines current political and social issues, often including
an historical perspective. For example, in a product on the Iraq
War, it pulled together material from its previous programs about
Iraq since the 1970s to demonstrate the difficulties of U.S. attempts
to influence the country’s policies.
|
Other primary documentary programs on PBS are:
|
NOVA:
topics related to science/health
NOVA:
teacher resources organized by topic
P.
O. V.—Point of View
Independent
Lens
Media
Matters
Secrets
of the Dead: crime lab forensics investigations
One of the more relevant of the P.O.V.
documentaries for teachers is the program
on “Borders.”
This programs deals with the concept of
how people are continually coping with borders
— both real and symbolic, in their everyday
lives. Included in the program are video
diaries of adolescents dealing with their
own personal conflicts and attempts to cope
with “borders “ in their own lives. This
site can be readily integrated into instruction
about cultural differences and alternative
perspectives, as suggested by teacher
materials on the site.
|
HBO documentaries. HBO also
produces documentaries,
many of which have won Academy and Emmy
Awards for best documentaries: Thoth
(Best Documentary Short, 2002), Big
Mama (Best Documentary Short, 2001),
One Day in September (Best Documentary
Feature, 2000), King Gimp (Best
Documentary Short, 2000), The Carpet
Slaves: Stolen Children of India (Emmy®
Award, 2002), Children in War (Emmy®
Award, 2000), Thug Life in D.C.
(Emmy® Award, 1999).
|
Unchained
Memories: Reading from Slave Narratives
|
Pandemic:
Facing AIDS
|
Persona
Non Grata, by Oliver Stone, examines
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with revealing
interviews with Israeli and Palestinian
leaders
|
Murder
on a Sunday Morning, about an African-American
adolescent male who is falsely accused of
a murder (Academy Award Winner for Best
Documentary Feature, 2002)
|
The
Independent Television Service produces
a lot of documentaries about social issues
for television, particularly for P.O.V.
(click here for a list of the ITS
documentaries on P.O.V.). |
| Webquests: television documentary
|
A
webquest on endangered species
|
"Land
of the Free, Home of the Brave?"
|
Fort
Williams
|
|
For further reading:
|
Kilborn, R. (1997). Confronting reality: An
introduction to television documentary. Manchester, UK: Manchester
University Press | | | | | | | |
|
