Nichols, Intro to Documentary Chapter 2 Quiz

The meaning of 'documentary' cannot be reduced to a dictionary definition, unlike 'temperature' or 'table salt'.

The definition of 'documentary' is always relational or comparative, just as love takes on meaning in contrast to indifference or hate, and culture takes on meaning in contrast to barbarism or chaos.

If documentary were a reproduction of reality, the problems would be far less acute as it would simply be a replica or copy of something that already existed.

<p>The text suggests that documentary is not a reproduction of reality, but a representation of the world we already occupy, standing for a particular view of the world.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The meaning of 'documentary' cannot be reduced to a self-contained dictionary definition, unlike 'temperature' or 'table salt'.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>If documentary were a reproduction of reality, the problems would be far less acute as it would simply be a replica or copy of something that already existed.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>By its fidelity to the original—its capacity to look like, act like, and serve the same purposes as the original.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>We ask more of a representation in terms of the nature of the pleasure it offers, the value of the insight or knowledge it provides, and the quality of the orientation or disposition, tone or perspective it instills.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Imitative illusion is a trap for the vulgar.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Some artists can see and represent more and greater truths than every passer-by will notice.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The photographer who sees most will represent more truths more truthfully than another.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Documentary is considered to be a 'fuzzy concept.'</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The text compares documentaries to disparate sorts of transportation devices in terms of their resemblance to each other.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Documentary film practice adopts no fixed inventory of techniques, address no one set of issues, display no single set of forms or styles.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The fuzziness of any definition arises partly because definitions change over time and partly because at any given moment no one definition covers all film.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The text proposes examples and prototypes, test cases and innovations as evidence of the broad arena within which documentary operates and evolves.</p> Signup and view all the answers