Fact and fiction in documentary films (Using the example of television films about the Great Patriotic War)

Abstract

This article is devoted to the study of methods of transmitting facts and artistic techniques in a
documentary on television. The purpose of the scientific research is to determine the characteristic features of
these techniques. The object of the study is documentaries about the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, released on
television in Kazakhstan and Russia. The functional difference in the techniques of constructing a documentary
film will allow us to further study the transformation processes in the structure of television documentaries. In
addition, marking the boundaries between the methods of transmitting facts and artistic techniques can become
the basis for the analysis of a documentary film. With the help of content analysis, calculations were made of
the quantitative ratio of two types of techniques for constructing a documentary film, which clearly showed
the crisis of dramaturgy and artistic image on modern television. The analysis also showed that the authors of
documentaries on television do not always skillfully use artistic techniques. Manipulation of facts and mixing
of feature films with documentaries negatively affects the structure of the documentary as a journalistic work. This conclusion makes us think about the quality of documentary films on television and about the possibilities
of minimizing the risk of its manipulative impact through further research of documentary film construction
techniques.