Tuesday 29 June 2010

Docs do stir up change. Question is, for how long?

Extract from an article on film.com:

"... consider the impact of the global-warming call to arms, An Inconvenient Truth. A Washington Post blog summed up its effect statistically (based on an NBC News and Wall Street Journal poll). In July 1999 23% of the poll’s respondents said “Global climate change has been established as a serious problem, and immediate action in necessary." By June 2006, after An Inconvenient Truth hit theaters it rose to 29%. In January 2007 the figure peaked at 34%. Yet less than three years later, by December 2009, the number dwindled back down to where it had been in 1999--at 23%. In other words, when it comes to documentaries and their causes, the public’s attention span can be rather short."

I'm guessing the average person's fast food consumption didn't decline after Super-Size Me either.

Of course 'making the world a better place' is not the only reason to make docs. Reflecting who we are is as good a purpose as showing us who we can or should be.

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