Class7

I watched the documentary Capturing the Freidman’s yesterday in my documentary film class and was surprised at the effect the soundtrack had on the film. My professor told me that the main theme song that plays throughout the film was performed and recorded in Italy by a professional big bang. This is unusual in documentary film, where the budgets are usually small and the soundtracks often seem homemade. The big band score in Capturing the Freidman’s made it seem less like a documentary and more like a Hollywood fiction film. For my class, this brought up questions of authenticity in documentary; for when a documentary starts to feel like a fictitious Hollywood film, the truth of it is questioned, and documentary is supposed to be based on truth. It seems almost unfair that a theme song can have the power to completely change our perspective on a film.