One I Hope to Experience Again
Ken Burns' Benjamin Franklin — the documentary filmmaker's latest deep dive into an important figure in American history — is now out on PBS. When I heard the picture show was coming out, I got excited. Through the magic of filmmaking, documentaries like this ane can make the by come alive. They can take historical scholarship and turn information technology into an exciting drama. The music rises and falls; you lot can't help but feel carried away.
That feeling is pretty compelling; it'due south besides tough to let go of information technology. Historical documentaries try to make y'all feel similar you've been through an feel, and that now you empathise, but I recollect that feeling is a little dangerous. It's and so important that we learn about the events of the past, just information technology'due south also really important that we don't think we know everything. More than and more, nosotros seem to be looking to history as a source of entertainment, and that has all kinds of complicated implications in how we think about the past.
Looking to the By for Certainty
You may take noticed that there are a whole lot of documentaries effectually these days. It feels like every time I peek at the offerings on Netflix or other streaming services, I'm presented with options for everything from true-crime docs about serial killers to docuseries most cults to deep dives on historical figures similar the aforementioned Benjamin Franklin.
There are, of class, lots of reasons why so many documentaries are getting made. To be certain, the pandemic has been a huge factor, simply beyond that I wonder if we're also craving a kind of settled narrative that just isn't available to usa in the nowadays moment. Life is pretty confusing these days. Nosotros're living through global health crises, wars, divisive politics, and the terrifying implications of ongoing climate change. It feels really hard to know anything.
Nether those circumstances, you tin can meet the appeal of plopping yourself down in front of something like a history documentary. You watch, and you get to feel like you know the story of something that happened. The past, in that way, tin can feel settled and certain in a way that feels comfortable to united states of america in the present.
The Positive Side of History as Entertainment
There are, of course, some practiced things about all of this. The best documentaries ask compelling questions and leave us feeling a sense of wonder about the world. When I was a child, I remember beingness and so bored in history classes that I idea I had no involvement in the topic whatsoever. Equally an adult, I've become actually interested in the history of the American Ceremonious War, but I remember blowing off unabridged reading assignments on the subject area in loftier school.
The success of historical documentaries like Burns' The Civil War, dated and problematic as it undeniably is, is absolutely function of why I've come to realize that I actually dear learning about the by. With and then many documentaries available — and the proliferation of history podcasts and companies similar MasterClass that sit on the edge of education and entertainment — it'southward more than possible than ever for people to realize, outside of the context of school, that they really enjoy learning. The risk is that these learning opportunities can lead to a state of affairs where the dominant historical narrative is being curated past people and companies driven by profit rather than by the rigors of historical research and truth.
How We Feel About the Past
As who nosotros are changes, how we feel about who nosotros used to be changes too. Contemporary criticisms of Burns' The Civil State of war are a good case of this. Burns himself has admitted that he "would probably exist making a dissimilar kind of film at present," from the 1 he made in 1990. The film he made, though, was incredibly influential, and for many people it concretized a lot of what the American Civil War became in our commonage memory.
There is a lot of splendid material in the documentary, merely unfortunately, on the whole, its conception of the American Civil 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 East. Lee "disapproved" of slavery, The Civil War presents a express and occasionally troubling perspective. That perspective becomes even more problematic when information technology becomes the dominant mode the state of war itself is remembered. Information technology takes a lot of time and free energy to undo these misconceptions — to aid people open their minds to the idea that things might have been different than how they were portrayed.
History Isn't Just Facts
In the cease, information technology'south important to remember that history is a field of study and a discourse. History isn't merely a set of facts that we receive and know how to interpret, but an ongoing conversation that happens over time. That conversation changes, equally I said above, based on who we are and what we value in a given period. It likewise changes based on how the facts are presented and who controls the power to nowadays them.
Documentaries are non, generally, conversations; they are statements. The best ones — and Burns' Benjamin Franklin might very well end up beingness one of these — encourage united states of america to explore farther and to ask more than questions. They might fifty-fifty leave the states feeling a footling unsettled, like we aren't sure whether the great historical figures of the past are heroes or villains. That's a good thing, because nigh of the fourth dimension, the figures of the past are neither. They are people, like usa, full of flaws and doubts. Hopefully, when we learn about them, we learn most the importance of being willing to modify our minds and ourselves.
Source: https://www.ask.com/culture/when-we-look-to-history-for-entertainment?utm_content=params%3Ao%3D740004%26ad%3DdirN%26qo%3DserpIndex
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