Louis Theroux

Louis Theroux is a British-American broadcaster who is best known for his Gonzo Style Journalism. Gonzo journalism is a style of journalism written subjectively, it often includes the writer as part of the story. The style often uses personal experiences and emotions to provide context for the story or event being covered in the documentary. The gonzo style journalism looks past the product favoured by the newspapers and the media and looks for the more gritty real factor, common aspects would be Sarcasm, humour, quotes and exaggeration. During his early career he worked as a correspondent for Micheal Moore TV Nation series another famous film maker. once this job ended he was then singed by the BBC where Louis landed a job as the film maker of Louis Theroux's weird weekends. He used many forms in order to show his documentaries from, observation, to poetic and reflexive.

Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends was Louis first real job documenting on subcultures. He followed mostly American Subcultures such as Black Nationalists, Porn Stars and Survivalists and then documented on their beliefs. In order for Louis to access this information he lived amongst or close to the people involved in this subcultures and observed their way of living. There were Three Series to Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends each showing episodes on different subcultures Which people would not normally come into contact with or experience up close.

below is a short clip of Louis theroux during one of his documnetaries based around female body builders:

Nick Broomfield

Nick Broomfield is an English documentary film maker who studied film at the National Film School. his type of documentaries vary as some are poetic and tell a story, which also involve Nick Broomfield himself in a reflexive way, where he stars in the film, some of his documentaries are also observational and follow the event throughout its journey. It was not until the release of Driving me Crazy (1988) that Nick appeared on the screen for the first time, it is for this reflexive film style that Nick Broomfield is best known for. In 2006 Nick Broomfield then changed his style to what he calls "Direct Cinema", using non actors play themselves. Broomfields Style of filming is very simple only involving him and 1-2 camera operators.
His first film he created was called Who cares (1971). He shot this film whilst at university using a wind up Bolex Camera and shooting it on short ends. After this he then went on to create some very well known documentaries. Nick Broomfields best known work would probably be Kurt and Courtney.

Kurt and Courtney is a documentary film about Kurt Cobain and Courtney love. It is a inside view to the death of Kurt Cobain and the involvement of Courtney Love. It is Nick Broomfields most well known work maybe due to the information about two of the biggest known celebrities. The film Concludes that there is not enough evidence to support that Cobain was Murdered. This type of Documentary is of poetic form telling a in depth story. the documentary was directed, written, produced and narrated all by Nick Broomfield.

Nick Broomfield has a website in whihc he shares all of his information about up and coming films as well as backround information about his life and interest:
http://www.nickbroomfield.com/

Michael Moore

Michael Moore is an actor, director, screenwriter and producer. he is an American political commentator who produces documentaries with an expository view in order to show the opinions and views of themselves and others. Micheal Moore directed and created documentaries on Fahrenheit 9/11 and Sicko, both of these documentaries were ranked in the top 10 ten of highest grossing documentaries.He also made

• Roger and me, this film is what first made Micheal moore in 1989
• Capitalism: A love story, this documentary is based around the financial crisis in the US
• Captain mike across America, where Micheal moore looks around the politics of college students

And many moore. As well as creating documentries he has also appeared in many others including The drugging of our children, The yes men, I'm going to tell you a secret and many more.

Fahrenheit 9/11 is a documentary that examines America during the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks. the documentary was an expository form in which Michael Moore was allowed to expose society with with political corruption. The documentary was an observational documentary as the camera followed the aftermath of the event and shows how it affected the community and the country as a whole as well as the politic system. Fahrenheit 9/11 is the second highest grossing documentary of all time, raking in over US$200 million worldwide.

Sicko is a documentary about the American health care system, it is an expository documentary which focuses on the flaws of the health care system in the United States. It is a comedy take on the health care and how it works and what Michael Moore believes is wrong with it and how it can be improved. The film is currently ranked third highest grossing documentary of all time after Fahrenheit 9/11, it also received an Academy Award nomination for best documentary feature. Below is the trailer for the documentary Sicko:





Michael Moore has his own website where he publishes all of his films, books as well as his opinions. He also has forums where people can discuss certain information and document on other situations.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/

Research- What is a documentary

A documentary is a way in which people document on events or people. There purpose is to record these events or people and reveal the information by presenting it to the camera. Documentaries are there to persuade or promote information to the public, to do this they analyse and interrogate people, events which they believe would be of interest to the public. In documentary views and opinions are able to be expressed throughout in order to show a balanced situation.

There are different forms and types of Documentary that are published, these forms give an insight into the the documentary genre is structured, these include:

reflexive- the filmmaker acknowledges their presence in the documentary and in front of the camera producing and giving a narrative guide throughout the documentary

poetic- an artistic way in showing the documentary, for example documentary about human affairs could be shown through real life experience.

Observational- this is when a documentary follows the event or the person through its journey as it is occurring.

Expository- when a documentary exposes information, flaws about a situation, for example Michael Moore did a documentary about the political system and exposed the flaws to the system to the public through the documentary.


Below is a short clip i found that explains the three most common styles of documnetaries in more detail:



There are many documnetarist who are well known for exposing the inside to abnormality in events and humans, these include:
Micheal Moore
Nick Brromfield
Louis Theroux