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January 16, 2011

Era, Toward and World War ( History of Documentary Film )

Documentary films grown increasingly complex in the era of the 30s. The emergence of voice technology also has established a documentary film with narrative technique and accompaniment music illustration. Governments, institutions, and large companies began to support the production of documentary films for the sake of variety. One of the most influential film is Triump of the Will (1934) the work of female film-maker Leni Riefenstahl, who used as a tool of Nazi propaganda. For the same interests, Riefenstahl also produce other important documentary films, namely Olympia (1936) which contains the documentation at the Berlin Olympic events. Through editing and camera techniques that brilliant, German athletes as a symbol of the Aryan nation are shown to be superior athletes than other countries.

In America, the era of major depression triggered the government to support documentary filmmakers to provide background information about the causes of depression. One of the prominent film maker Pare Lorentz. He started with The Plow That Broke the Plains (1936), and the success of this film makes Lorentz again be trusted to produce another influential documentary film, The River (1937). The success of these films make the American government and various institutions supporting the project more serious documentaries. This support will increasingly intensive over the next decade after the world war raging.

Second World War changed the status of documentary films to a higher level. The U.S. government even asked the help of the Hollywood film industry to produce films (propaganda) that supported the war. Documentary films are becoming increasingly popular in the community. Before the television show, the public can witness the incident and the events on the battlefield through documentary films and short news snippets that play in regular theaters. Some top Hollywood filmmakers, such as Frank Capra, John Ford, William Wyler and John Huston was asked by the military to produce documentary films War. Capra for example, produced seven long documentary series titled, Why We Fight (1942-1945) is regarded as the best propaganda documentary film series ever. Capra even worked with Disney studios to make some animated sequences. While John Ford through The Battle of Midway (1942) and William Wyler through Memphis Belle (1944) both also successfully won an Oscar for best documentary. 

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