Documentary has been heavily associated as a representation of the truth and reality due to its absence of fictional elements and control by the filmmaker (Chapman, 2009). It aims to entice the audience perception of the information presented as fundamental and legitimate (Beattie, 2004). With today's technology, the question of manipulated facts and proclaimed evidences presented in documentaries has heightened concerns in providing the audience with the truth and the real. Hence, with reference to the documentary on "Biggie and Tupac" (2002) directed by Nick Broomfield, we will explore how the documentary has managed to capture the real in terms of structure, style and modes of documentary.
The documentary film was about the murders of hip hop rappers Christopher “Notorious B.I.G” Wallace and Tupac “2Pac” Shakur. Following the film closely, the evidences and theories was based mainly on a former detective of which Broomfield suggested that it was due to the East Coast/ West Coast rivalry in the hip hop culture that had resulted in the two killings orchestrated by the fearsome puppet-master, Suge Knight, former CEO of Death Row Records. The film also uncovered possible involvement by Los Angeles police officers who were on Knight’s payroll after Broomfield presented an eye-witness who were able to name one of the hit men (VanillaIceJuggalo, 2012).
Broomfield previous documentary films such as Kurt and Courtney and Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam gave birth to a new genre in documentary films: tabloid celebrity journalism (Kehr, 2002). The film opened with archival images from the crime scenes of the two killings and thereafter ran on vérité sequences of Broomfield slinging a recorder over his shoulder and a boom mike in his hand; w...
... middle of paper ...
...s’. Broomfield’s approach was understated yet blunt when he persuaded his subjects to say things on the camera which could land them into trouble. For instance, Broomfield acted surprise when Biggie’s bodyguard pointed out the hit men that approached him the night of Biggie’s murder. Broomfield was already informed of the suspect beforehand by a former detective. The camera was zoomed in to Biggie’s bodyguard’s face without anyone speaking for quite some time. This could be a deliberate role played to push the subject to provide more information.
Overall, the film was carefully planned out with evidences sufficient to feed the audience. Broomfield’s films are known to be self-promotion and this may be his way of seeking knowledge of the hip hop world. His fearless approach was engaging and subtle and this could be a factor that promotes the film to capture the real.
¨Father forgive us for living (Shakur, 1). Tupac speaks from the african american point of view, as in a world where african americans are discriminated, simply living is a crime In ¨Untitled 1,¨ by Tupac Shakur, the theme is how African Americans have been discriminated by other races and even self-discriminated and how that needs to be changed. Tupac examines the struggles of African Americans, and talks about how they have been discriminated for a very long time and how it has caused sorrow. That being said, he remains hopeful towards the future, and wants to inspire children to spark change.
Conformity can be very crucial, infact a lot of people eventually start hurting themselves or doing drugs just because they don't feel themselves anymore.Why can't society change? why can't that one kid that always follows everyone in the back can turn into the kid that just hangs with the people they really wanna hang with?We need to embrace ourselves so we can stop all this conformity from consuming us.Tupac was a nonconformist, he always did what made him happy and always told the truth.
Did you know when Tupac was alive he would always wear a bulletproof vest? But on the day he died he supposedly for some strange reason didn’t wear his bulletproof vest. Also there were rumors that Elvis faked his own death in order to escape his celebrity status and be free to live the rest of his life out of the gaze of the public eye. Couple of these theories were basically saying that Elvis and Tupac faked their deaths and are considered to be alive still.
My mama always told me, if you can’t find something to live for, you best to find something to die for.” Death is a hard pill to swallow and that swallow happened in 1996 when Lesane Parish Crooks died. He was a man of many names. Some people known him as Tupac Amaru Shakur. Many people known him as 2Pac but he called himself Makaveli. Makaveli was a man that touches many souls. In 1996 when he lost his soul countless people felt pain.
Since the early to mid 90’s, hip-hop has undergone changes that purists would consider degenerating to its culture. At the root of these changes is what has been called “commercial hip-hop". Commercial hip-hop has deteriorated what so many emcees in the 80’s tried to build- a culture of music, dance, creativity, and artistry that would give people not only something to bob their head to, but also an avenue to express themselves and deliver a positive message to their surroundings.
One of three women, whose cases the documentary-markers followed for a year, from the moment emergency phone calls were placed was Sabrina. The second was Helen, who met Lawrence 10 years ago. For a brief period of time he was nice to her and her son, however when her son turned 12, he was having to run for help to stop Lawrence’s beatings. In between those years, there were assaults, promises to change, letters begging forgiveness. Police photographs show the imprint of his shoe on her face. Jemma was punched, dragged and strangled to unconsciousness by Dwayne, who would wait for her to come around each time before he started
The film Notorious starts with scene in La, California, this is where most African American artist start their career at example NWA, where Biggie is about to be killed. Before the shooting occurs, the film flashes back to Biggie 's childhood. When Biggie was a child, he lived it by being obsessed with money and fine jewelry. In order to achieve, such money he ends up selling drugs. He continues to sells drugs, and when he hears his girlfriend, Jan Jackson, was pregnant he takes drug dealing to a new level. Later in the movie he faced jail time because he was caught selling drugs. He continues to sell drugs but started to rap, this is when his career
In the movie “Boyz in the Hood” director John Singleton, paints a clear image of the problems that happen very often in the African American communities. The movie deals with issues such as: the importance of a father in a young man’s life, the ongoing violence of black on black crime, and how black people are put in situations where they are put to fail and not succeed in life.
...ts out to do, the art of rap and hip hop. That is the skill, talent, and ability that one must have in order to rhyme. Yet, the movie seems to not provide enough historical background or inform the audience of the cultural aspect of Hip Hop. Had the movie went deeper into the origins of Hip Hop then the audience would be able to get a fuller grasp about all the elements that are truly entwined in such a genre.
Tupac Amaru Shakur one of the most influential, controversial rappers to have ever existed. He grew up fatherless and at times motherless because of drugs, violence, and twisted ideas. Through struggle and hardships he found his flow. He showed the world that something can come from nothing. From joining up with the Digital Underground to his single debut he worked up he grew his fan base. As he grew in fame so did the East and West rivalry.
In “Modern Theories of Criminality,” we can apply Enrico Ferri’s idea of criminality to the documentary. In Ferri’s theory of factors, crime is the product of many causes such as: individual/ anthropological (e.g., age, sex, social rank, education), physical/ natural (e.g., race, climate, seasons), and social (e.g., emigration, religion, public opinions). This is seen in the documentary because physical/ natural factors, like race, played a role for the African Americans. People like Bird and
Bardsley, Marilyn. "Murder!" Charles Manson and the Manson Family — — Crime Library. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.
For over a decade documentaries have evolved from informative texts to tools of persuasion, as a result of the ever-changing cultural contexts and societal ideologies (Merin, n.d.). In 1936, John Grierson coined the term ‘documentary’, since then both the type of film as well as the practice of making documentaries have broadened into endless sub-genres such as advocacy documentaries and biographical documentaries. Regardless of the myriad forms of the genre, a great number of documentaries are based around the narratives of depicting “untold [truths and giving] voice to the voiceless” (Rushdie, 1987); this is done to manoeuvre audiences to persuade them to support the filmmaker’s cause. Just by scanning the list of highest grossing feature length documentaries, it can be observed that, two of the top ten grossing documentaries of all time are Michael Moore films. These include ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ (2004), which grossed nearly $120,000,000 at the box office and ‘Sicko’ (2007) which almost earned $25,000,000 to date (Box Office Mojo, n.d.). His other films ‘Bowling for Columbine’ (2002), ‘Capitalism: A Love Story’ (2009) and ‘Roger & Me’ (1989) are number 11, 15 and 24 respectively. The level of success which Moore has achieved is unprecedented; it is also, rather astounding considering Michael Moore is a filmmaker who “inspires and invites criticism” actively (Dalton, 2012). Michael Moore, one of the most controversial and successful filmmakers of our time wittingly uses a multitude of cinematic approaches to manipulate his audiences in his unique and clever way. Michael Moore’s characteristic style of filmmaking provokes questions about “what’s ethical in documentary film by destabilizing our expectations of the genre” (Borden, 2007...
The Metropolitan Museum of Arts located at 1000 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan was selected as the site for a critical analysis of the exhibition Crime Stories: Photography and Foul Play. This exhibition comprised of the fascinating art of photographing crime scenes to produce images that are both gruesome and thought-provoking. Crime scene photographers were involved in the difficult process of capturing the crime scenes and evidence for the purpose of prosecuting the perpetrators. Many of the photographs on display were used as evidence to capture some of the most horrific criminals. There were over 70 collections ranging from the 1850’s where the first mug shot was taken by the French, to present day crimes scenes. There were numerous images shot by French Photographer Alphonse Bertillon who was noted for creating the first mug shot which is now being used around the world. On
2. Nichols, Bill. ‘Documentary Modes of Representation (The Observational Mode).’ Representing Reality: Issues and Concepts in Documentary. Bloomington & Indianapolis; Indiana University Press. 1991. 38-44