39
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2023
39 points (97.6% liked)
[Outdated, please look at pinned post] Casual Conversation
6470 readers
1 users here now
Share a story, ask a question, or start a conversation about (almost) anything you desire. Maybe you'll make some friends in the process.
RULES
- Be respectful: no harassment, hate speech, bigotry, and/or trolling
- Encourage conversation in your post
- Avoid controversial topics such as politics or societal debates
- Keep it clean and SFW: No illegal content or anything gross and inappropriate
- No solicitation such as ads, promotional content, spam, surveys etc.
- Respect privacy: Don’t ask for or share any personal information
Related discussion-focused communities
- !actual_discussion@lemmy.ca
- !askmenover30@lemm.ee
- !dads@feddit.uk
- !letstalkaboutgames@feddit.uk
- !movies@lemm.ee
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
I totally agree and have stopped watching many documentaries after just a few minutes usually because of too much heavy handed narration.
I've really enjoyed documentaries such as All That Breathes and Honeyland, which have basically no narration. Of course the editing tells a certain story, and if you're curious you may need to go to Wikipedia or something to answer some questions, but I prefer that to having loaded commentary shoved down my ears.
I appreciate that suggestion, I will definitely look into it! I'm intrigued by the idea of there being little narration.
Just tonight I tried to watch another documentary, and I think it's what spurred my post. My grievance was exactly what you're describing.
At one point they were talking about divers collecting a sample from the ocean floor, and the narration was underscoring how critical it was they do the dive while conditions are still safe, and how the waves could increase in intensity, increasing the danger manyfold! And it's like okay... so what's really happening is that these guys are taking some scuba tanks and they're going to go down 30 ft and everything's going to be fine cuz nothing's happening here. (Edit: of course, accompanied by pounding string orchestra music)
Yes, the emotion distracts from what's happening and prevents you noticing your own real reactions and connecting the story.
I just realized those two I suggested are mostly subtitled. I've also enjoyed I think it's DW? Documentaries from Germany I think but covering all kinds of things. Some are short form. They have narration, but less of the discovery channel type. God, have you seen the History Channel. My kid in high school has to watch those, complete garbage