Within the genre of documentary there are countless sub-genres. I would like to spend the next few posts exploring a few of the doc sub-genres.
Here are a few I've encountered:
THE COMPETITION DOC: Spellbound, Wordplay, Mad Hot Ballroom, King of Kong
THE WAR DOC: Gunner Palace, Iraq For Sale, No End in Sight, Iraq in Fragments, Heavy Metal in Baghdad, How to Fold a Flag, Land of Confusion.
THE FOOD DOC: Food Inc., King Corn, Pressure Cooker, Flow
THE "PUTTING ON A SHOW" DOC : Shakespeare Behind Bars, La Corona, School Play, OT: Our Town, Autism: The Musical.
Heather Ross' Girls on the Wall is a textbook "putting on the show" doc.
GOTW is a solid, competent doc about the bad (and in some cases VERY bad) girls of the Warrenville Juvenile Correctional Facility.
Warrenville attempts to rehabilitate these damaged teens by allowing them to tell their stories in the form of a MUSICAL!
What makes this doc (and Warrenville’s program) so compelling is that the troubled teens write the show themselves - borrowing from their real life experiences. The process proves to be just as cathartic as it is creative.
The story unfolds in an easy manner – introducing us to several of the girls – as they try to come to terms with their lives, their crimes, and what their lives will be like after Warrenville.
The great thing about competition docs is the story arc is almost built into the premise and all they players will be changed by going through the experience.
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