I wish people would stop referring to BoTH as a mockumentary. A mockumentary is meant to be funny and irreverant, like This Is Spinal Tap or Best In Show, which the film certainly was not. I think a good way to describe this movie would be as a "faux-documentary".
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Though I see your point. I don't think the genre of 'mockumentaries' is large enough yet to have sub genres. Do you think 'The Blair Witch Project' is a mocumentary? Just interested.
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I don't know the distinction between a mockumentary and a faux-documentary. Enlighten me if you can. I would argue that a director can't 'invent' a new genre just by saying his film is that new catagory. Do you know any other examples of faux-documentary films? Are you saying mockumentaries are films like Spinal tap (funny) and faux-documentaries are films like punishment park (serious)? If so then where do films such as Cannible Holocaust (horror) lie? Shockumentary? There, that's a good one. I made it up on the spot. Maybe I should start another 'new genre' within the genre.
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Wow! Thanks alot for that.
It's crazy how you write better English than me and it's not your mother tongue. I like your word 'sexumentary'. When I think about it Porno films fall in to that 'mock/faux' catagory far far more often anyway than 'regular' films do (mine seem to anyways). Alot are about ordinary people who stumble across a 'scenario' we see them watching, talking about what they're seeing, looking to the camera maybe and then shazam.....you know the rest. Is that a contender for the genre?
It's such an interesting type of film because it's small and the 'rules' are as yet undefined. Could you include DOGMA films into the group for example? They try and keep their films real. If you think about it every piece of edited film you ever see is unreal. The BBC news has morals it has to uphold and inflict on us. Real documentaries I have seen you know what 'side' you'll end up on because the director/editor has entered into that project wanting to express an often singular point of view ('one day in september' for example is brilliant but I see it to be biased). So infact is everything we see on TV a lie? a Mockumentary? Which brings me to the horrible question. Is the only thing true in this media world endless unedited footage of the big brother house?
I bought 'The Christopher Guest Collection' Dvd (Best in Show and Guffman were great) and I recognise that his films are entirely different from Brothers of the Head. I want to see more Mockumentaries/Faux-Film/Docudrama because it fascinates me. I've got to stop watching porn and thinking about mockumentaries though.
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I'd argue that it is based on a given defination:
Mockumentary, a portmanteau of mock and documentary, is a film and TV genre, or a single work of the genre. The mockumentary is presented as if it were a documentary recording real life, but is in fact fictional. It is a commonly used medium for parody and satire.
COMMONLY.
Then it listed examples of mockumentaries, many of which were not 'funny'. Faux Documentary just sounds likes like a mockumentary. Plus, I looked up "faux docs" and many of them seem like mockumentaries.
I'm not sure why you're so mad about the whole thing.
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You ruined my new jacket....KILL HIM A LOT
I think that a term such as 'mockumentary', which strongly suggests comedy, is a really inappropriate label for the film. And I can imagine that lots of people would be angry for various reasons. People who watch the movie thinking that they're going to watch a comedy will probably be disappointed - even angry - that the film didn't live up to their expectations, or deliver what they assumed they were promised. And I'd guess that the filmmaker wouldn't want people to sit down with the wrong expectations. You'd probably be pissed off if you went to see Romeo and Juliet but had been led to expect that it was a comedy -- "What, they all die in the end? This play sucks!" You expectations have a lot to do with how you watch the film, after all.
The 'given definition' that you quote is from wikipedia. It's a definition written by people out on the internet. Probably the same people who call "Brothers of the Head" a mockumentary.
Try this Webster's definition instead:
"a facetious or satirical work (as a film) presented in the style of a documentary"
I think that 'facetious' and 'satire' clearly indicate an expected tone. And a tone that doesn't really apply to "Brothers of the Head."
If you look up the etymology, the word first came into common use in 1984 -- the year that Spinal Tap was released. And I think that Spinal Tap - as a comedy - is better suited to being labelled a mockumentary. But fiction filmmakers have been using documentary techniques long before Spinal Tap. Check out David Holzman's Diary, and maybe you'll understand why 'faux documentary' is more appropriate.
Yeah, calling it a mockumentary is just misleading. DirectTv called it that and I was waiting to laugh. Got some tears instead :/
shareTo say that this is not a mockumentary is to completely misunderstand what the term "mockumentary" actually means. A mockumentary is not, by definition, a comedic film. It is simply a fictional film shot to look like a documentary, and presenting itself as such, for comedic or dramatic effect. The word "mock," as it is used here, simply means "imitation" or "counterfeit." In short, a mockumentary is an imitation or counterfeit documentary. Like film noir, it is a style, not a genre...and mockumentaries can fall into many different genres. Indeed, any genre. Yes, Brothers of the Head is a mockumentary. So is The Blair Witch Project. So is Interview With the Assassin. These are some more recent, but by no means isolated, examples of non-comedic mockumentary filmmaking.
To say that these films are not mockumentaries on the grounds that they are not comedic is to subvert the actual definition of the term. And further, to call a film like Brothers of the Head a "docudrama" is just flat-out wrong. A docudrama is a film that is based on real life events, semi-fictionalized for dramatic purposes...it is not necessarily (or even frequently) shot and/or presented in true documentary style. Spike Lee's Malcolm X or Michael Mann's Ali would qualify as docudramas. Brothers of the Head, being a fictional story presented in documentary style (as opposed to a fact-based story presented as cinematic entertainment) would not.
Hope this clears up some misconceptions.
As it was a mock documentary, mockumentary seems quite fitting to me.
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Mock doesn't mean funny, just simulated.
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Erm, no you're not. At least if you are trying to say that you're not saying it accurately.
"Mock exams aren't funny, maybe we should start referring to them as faux exams" suggests that you think mock exams should be renamed because they aren't funny and therefore you deem mock to be a synonym for funny, which it isn't.
Now can your spam you divvy gasbag.
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You'd assume wrong, though that's hardly surprising as you seem to be on a roll in that respect. I'm British/English/Mancunian, take your pick.
I can grasp sarcasm with the best of them but when done without intonation (as is the limitation of a web forum) and done badly at that, well I needn't go on.
Now run along you goit.
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Haha, a southern ponce. All is clear.
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Ohh man. I thought after we'd cleared up the geography and we'd established that I'm a daft dancing, pill popping, cig stealing, baggy trousered bloody b@stard Manc and that you're a poncey Wilts bumpker; that'd have been us through. Yet here we are again, oh well:
Not sure mate, never been to the old gay capital so I couldn't compare. But you seem to be very well up on these things so I'm sure you can fill me in. Actually, god no, don't do that. Aren't gays like vampires? Invite them in and before you know it you'll have a stake in your ... oh never mind.
Anyway, didn't your Mam ever tell you that country bumpkins shouldn't tangle with city folk if they know what's good for them. You'll be trying to sell me beans next.
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Beans - Here you go then http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/HappyCow.jpgw, now do one.
Gay vampire demonisation - I concur.
Handgun toting - Fair point, though most of us have moved on to automatic rifles these days. I expect you have a musket, or maybe a bow and arrow?
Asian stabbing - You're thinking Burnley, that lot are more akin to your folk than mine.
Glory hunting - Couldn't agree more. Though you're more likely to find those sort round your parts (I'm not back on the gay thing, I mean Wiltshire) than you are here.
Football ruining - That lot have ruined football for me for over a decade, deal with it.
Classy - Thanks, I do try.
Northern pride issues - News to me.
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"It's true, some northerners don't like to be called northern"
I still can't agree on the northern roots satisfaction debate. Back in the day I inaugurated the Northern Gay Vampire Pride Foundation and we are going from strength to strength at the moment. 8 members 'n all, it was 9 until Vlad had that unfortunate felching accident with his whippet.
"Where I live, population four to five thousand (probably another thousand in the surrounding area)"
Now now, you can't include livestock in your village's populace count.
"I'm twenty-four and my wage is £2.80 an hour"
£2.80 an hour! You must be a veritable King in your region. I bet you have the best bells on your Morris dancing outfit and everything.
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This is only going to go one way, and a sub-machine-gun Morris dancer massacre is not a sight I want to see again any time soon. So I'll say ta-ra for now and bid you good luck on hitting minimum wage in the immediate future.
PS With regards to Vlad, would you be okay if you had a whippet impaled in your anus? Don't answer that.
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The film was interesting because it wasn't a mockumentary at all---it actually had a more serious tone to it, and was actually surprisingly good. More of a somber tone than you would expect from a film dealing with such subject matter.
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