Documentary Assignment

1.       Provide a summary of your chosen documentary. Synthesize key ideas, concepts, or experiences explored throughout the film. Include a thorough summary (if written, at least three paragraphs.  (5 points)

My documentary is about depression. It goes around and talks to student who are in college and how they deal with their depression. It also looks at other people’s point of view of depression and tries to figure out why mental illness is such a taboo subject.

In this film even though it’s only 15 minutes long it explores a lot. The girl who created it goes and talks to a psychologist who tells us what it expected from someone with depression and then talks about medicine.

In another part of the documentary the girl talks to two people who suffer from a mental illness one has depression and another has Bipolar Disorder. Both of them say how people without the disease don’t understand what it’s like. You can’t just “snap out of it”. They talk about their struggles with the disease and how they cope with it.

               

2.       Which storytelling techniques are used in the documentary you viewed? Does the film follow one person’s story or many? Does the film use footage from other broadcasts/shows or its own footage? Does the film use statistics, experience, or both? Describe in detail about the variety of techniques used. (5 points)

This film uses its’ own footage. It used statistics and experiences to give the watcher information. This documentary follows only about two people’s stories, and it’s only a small part of their story that we are able to see. In this film it’s put on by a college student in the UK she goes around the psychologists, college students, and then to the college mental illness help center. She talks with all of these people about why depression and other mental illnesses are so taboo.

3.       What are some elements of the media that are brought into the story (i.e. news articles, news programs, etc.)? (5 points)

In this story there really weren’t any media items that were brought into the film.

4.       What types of other sources are provided by the documentary (i.e. interviews, experiences, etc.)? (5 points)

We hear about her own struggles with depression and then we hear two other college students’ stories, and how they coped with their illness. We also hear from a psychologist and a mental help center.

5.       Is there any bias in this film? Describe in detail why or why not. (5 points)

Well in this film you only really hear from those who have worked with mental illness or from those who have suffered from it so I guess in a way it could be biased. They don’t talk to other people who don’t have a mental illness but there is still information on what they think. So all in all I don’t really think that this film was too biased.

6.       What information can you take away from your documentary to include in your research? In other words, how does this connect to your research? (5 points)

This film connects to my research because it covers what I was looking into. It tells us how people with mental illness are just like everybody else you can’t just look at them and see that they’re sick, that’s why mental illness is so hard to understand for some. I took away that in college there are still places for you to get help if you feel like you might be depressed or something else. There is help out there for people if they are willing to go to it.