We Hope to See You Again Soon in Spanish
Ken Burns' Benjamin Franklin — the documentary filmmaker's latest deep swoop into an of import figure in American history — is at present out on PBS. When I heard the film was coming out, I got excited. Through the magic of filmmaking, documentaries similar this i can brand the past come up alive. They can have historical scholarship and turn information technology into an heady drama. The music rises and falls; you can't help but feel carried away.
That feeling is pretty compelling; it'due south likewise tough to let become of it. Historical documentaries effort to make you feel like you lot've been through an feel, and that at present you lot understand, but I think that feeling is a little unsafe. Information technology's so important that we learn about the events of the past, but it's also really important that we don't think we know everything. More than and more, nosotros seem to be looking to history as a source of entertainment, and that has all kinds of complicated implications in how we think well-nigh the by.
Looking to the Past for Certainty
You may have noticed that there are a whole lot of documentaries around these days. It feels similar every time I peek at the offerings on Netflix or other streaming services, I'm presented with options for everything from true-crime docs about serial killers to docuseries about cults to deep dives on historical figures like the aforementioned Benjamin Franklin.
There are, of course, lots of reasons why so many documentaries are getting made. To exist sure, the pandemic has been a huge gene, but beyond that I wonder if we're also craving a kind of settled narrative that just isn't available to us in the present moment. Life is pretty confusing these days. Nosotros're living through global health crises, wars, divisive politics, and the terrifying implications of ongoing climate change. It feels really hard to know anything.
Nether those circumstances, you lot can encounter the appeal of plopping yourself down in front of something like a history documentary. You spotter, and yous get to feel like you know the story of something that happened. The by, in that way, tin can feel settled and certain in a way that feels comfortable to us in the present.
The Positive Side of History every bit Entertainment
There are, of course, some good things virtually all of this. The best documentaries inquire compelling questions and go out us feeling a sense of wonder about the earth. When I was a kid, I recollect existence and so bored in history classes that I thought I had no interest in the topic any. As an developed, I've become actually interested in the history of the American Civil State of war, but I remember blowing off entire reading assignments on the bailiwick in loftier school.
The success of historical documentaries like Burns' The Civil War, dated and problematic every bit it undeniably is, is admittedly role of why I've come to realize that I actually love learning about the past. With so many documentaries available — and the proliferation of history podcasts and companies like MasterClass that sit on the edge of education and entertainment — information technology's more possible than ever for people to realize, outside of the context of schoolhouse, that they actually bask learning. The risk is that these learning opportunities can lead to a situation where the dominant historical narrative is being curated by people and companies driven by profit rather than by the rigors of historical research and truth.
How We Feel About the By
As who we are changes, how we experience about who we used to be changes too. Contemporary criticisms of Burns' The Civil War are a expert example of this. Burns himself has admitted that he "would probably be making a dissimilar kind of film at present," from the i he made in 1990. The film he fabricated, though, was incredibly influential, and for many people it concretized a lot of what the American Ceremonious War became in our collective memory.
There is a lot of splendid material in the documentary, only unfortunately, on the whole, its formulation of the American Civil State of war itself is deeply flawed. From perpetuating the idea that the war was almost a failure to compromise to the idea that a man like Robert E. Lee "disapproved" of slavery, The Civil War presents a limited and occasionally troubling perspective. That perspective becomes even more than problematic when it becomes the ascendant fashion the war itself is remembered. It takes a lot of time and energy to undo these misconceptions — to help people open up their minds to the thought that things might have been different than how they were portrayed.
History Isn't Simply Facts
In the end, it's important to remember that history is a discipline and a discourse. History isn't just a set of facts that we receive and know how to translate, but an ongoing conversation that happens over time. That conversation changes, every bit I said above, based on who we are and what we value in a given period. It also changes based on how the facts are presented and who controls the power to present them.
Documentaries are not, generally, conversations; they are statements. The all-time ones — and Burns' Benjamin Franklin might very well cease up existence ane of these — encourage us to explore farther and to enquire more questions. They might fifty-fifty leave us feeling a petty unsettled, similar we aren't sure whether the dandy historical figures of the by are heroes or villains. That's a good thing, because most of the fourth dimension, the figures of the past are neither. They are people, like us, full of flaws and doubts. Hopefully, when nosotros learn about them, we learn about the importance of being willing to modify our minds and ourselves.
Source: https://www.ask.com/culture/when-we-look-to-history-for-entertainment?utm_content=params%3Ao%3D740004%26ad%3DdirN%26qo%3DserpIndex
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