Superheroes
It follows the lives of different people around America and how they try and combat evildoers in their local cities. Its also delves into there lives away from being real life superheroes and how they create a balance between them. I found the entire documentary a massive insight into how they are perceived by the public they are trying to protect and how the police see them. The police in some cases see them as a joke because of how they are dressed and what they call themselves, on the other hand the public give them more of a positive response and they see them as a help to the police her are under manned and outnumbered by the wrongdoers of the world
When people are asked about superheroes more than likely they will want to talk about the likes of Batman, Superman and Spiderman. No one seems to understand that there are real life superheroes out there and they are trying to save the world in there own way. Just because they don’t have all the gadgets and a cape or even a fancy car or special ability, this does not mean what they are doing shouldn’t be counted and recognized. On the other hand there are real life superheroes that do like to where capes and go out and patrol on the streets. These can be found in the UK and the United States and even all over the world. There is a project in the United States Called The Real Life Super Hero Project, it is a collective of people that consider themselves to be superheroes. They have their own reasons for wanting to become a superhero for example, Mr. Extreme who is based in San Diego in California states that he has been a volunteer crime fighter for more than ten years. He goes on to say say the real reasons he became involved was the fact he had been jumped by gang members, bullied at school and was even molested as a child.
Louis Theroux – Brothel
The principal subject of this documentary is expose and understand the working girls of a brothel in the southern states of the United States of America. Louis Theroux delves into the lives of the working girls and goes into detail when asking them about how the feel about their careers and why they really do it. The “Voice of God” is a technique apparent in this documentary, this would suggest this documentary is in the expository mode. It is also falls into the participatory mode as Louis Theroux is scene on the documentary to be working at the brothel and is also scene in every interview. Louis doesn’t follow conventional documentary interview techniques as the interviewee controls the conversation and challenges the interviewer on their own opinions and questions.
Louis Theroux - Twilight of the Porn Star
Within the Documentary Louis Theroux revisits the porn industry in winch he had paid a visit to 15 years earlier. he goes on to examine the death of John Dough, a male porn star who had previously been involved in his earlier documentary as primary. The main focus of this was the decline in popularity in the porn industry and upon revisiting the industry he aims to discover the current state of the world of porn and compares what he saw 15 years ago to what is going on now.This follows the stye of Gonzo Journalism as do many of Louis Theroux documentaries do. It can be said that this documentary falls into the modes of Expository, Participatory, Performative and poetic.
Gonzo Journalism
Gonzo journalism is very unique style of journalism as it is without objectivity, Louis Theroux uses this style with the majority of his work as his role of the reporter is included within the story. This style was first used during the 1970’s and described an article Hunter S. Thompson, he later exposed the style further and has been linked to other projects. It will utilize the personal and emotional experiences of the subject and through this it will achieve a better visualization of the subject matter and the primary. In contrast to this normal journalism techniques detach themselves form the subject matter through its writing style and would focus mainly on direct quotes and facts that can be found. This allows the Gonzo style to reveal a more emotional, personal and gritty approach to what it is being used on. Just as Loius Theroux documentaries include the use of over acting, humor and sarcasm this is also common throughout Gonzo journalism.
Hunter S. Thompson is quoted to have said, "If I'd written the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people—including me—would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism”.
Seamus Murphy : A Darkness Visible
Seamus Murphy is a photojournalist who spent 15 years in Afghanistan taking many trips and paying many visits to the country when producing this breath taking piece of media. It dives into the history of the past 30 years in which the country has been through so much from the russian invasion and there combat with the Mujaheddin and the Americans and the taliban. Murphy exposes the lives of the people not the governing super power and examines how these people are affected and what their lives now consist of due to past and current events. As many would expect there are detailed stories of violence and bloodshed however there are also stories of love and compassion within this epic and emotional piece of media. Having the photos in black and white add an emotive spin to them, this only enhances what the project has already achieved in terms of gaining an emotive response through exposing the lives of normal people caught in this power struggle. This can be found on Media Storm.
