Film Techniques and Documentaries, an Opinionative Balance

I believe unregulated capitalism is “evil” and must be “eliminated”. I believe it allows, “Corporate America and Wall Street” to take control of America. I believe it preys on the, ‘little people’ like those at the, “Republican Windows and Doors Factory”, pilots and home owners like the Hackers. I believe it allows people like Peter Zelewiski to make money from other peoples misfortune. I believe that it thrives on war like the one America waged in Iraq.
However, I also believe that the black and white montage of file footage depicting hypnosis and hypnotists encourages viewers to agree with the version of reality presented in Capitalism: A Love Story, a documentary made and directed by Michael Moore. Documentaries present a version of reality through a variety of unique film techniques to portray a particular issue to viewers. These techniques are used very successfully in Moore’s presentation of “derivatives”. He presents this financial term as nothing short of rocket science too complicated for the average American to understand. He insinuates that viewers “might as well quit” it they attempt to understand the term. His unhelpful interviews with a former member of Wall Street and file footage of a university professor who both attempt to describe the term only provide viewers with entertainment, as the men on the silver screen loop back upon themselves and say, “umm” more times than they do any other word. This selection of visual footage encourages viewers to be bemused by this term and see it as a joke in the financial world.
Moore also positions viewers to feel empathy for the Hacker family who have been evicted from their dream home on the family property due to bank foreclosures. Viewers see the family emptying their home of all their possessions and either dumping them at the local tip or burning them. He uses close up camera shots of the family members as they receive further bad news and tears to move viewers towards an emotional response towards the family. Although Moore provides some explanation towards the loss of the family home, Mr Hacker being on disability after an accident, he does not present the actual facts and figures towards the loss of their home, leaving readers in the dark. This use of selective detail, montages, interviews, file footage, real footage and camera angles are just a few examples of the techniques used in the documentary to present unregulated capitalism as the cause of America’s “eventual decline”. Documentaries present a version of reality and this is evident in Moore’s presentation of capitalism in Capitalism: A Love Story.