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by remify 1953 days ago
As a French my definition of a documentary is what Arte produce.

I recently discovered what a documentary is for an American and it's night and day. American documentaries are entertainment package with actions and conspiracies. There's really not a lot of discovery and knowledge.
2 comments
jgwil2 1952 days ago
You don't know what documentaries are for Americans. You may have been exposed to some garbage (there's plenty out there produced all over the world) but it's just plain ignorant to assume the small sample you have seen is representative.
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drstewart 1953 days ago
Can you explain how and why you think a documentary such as Ken Burns' Civil War series, a seminal example of American documentaries, is filled with action and conspiracies?
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currymj 1953 days ago
if you go to the "documentary" section on Netflix or another streaming service, there are dozens and dozens of really low-quality documentaries. Some are on conspiracy topics (UFOs, ancient aliens) or stupid and sensationalist. They all seem to treat the audience like they are not very smart.

I think most were produced on small budgets to run during the daytime on cable channels like History or Discovery, and then sold to Netflix as well.

These could definitely give someone a bad impression of what counts for documentary film in America, and in terms of raw numbers there are way more of them than anything else.

However, the documentaries produced for American public television (like those of Ken Burns) tend to be very good. And there are also high-quality American documentaries that go on the festival circuit.

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Terretta 1952 days ago
Right, this would be like going into Amazon Prime and saying the median content is what American TV is like.

To be fair, it may be, but the Certified Fresh tab of Rotten Tomatoes is what viewers talking about TV have in mind.

To your point, look somewhere applying a touch of curation by quality for a fairer take on what Americans want in a documentary.

https://www.metacritic.com/browse/tv/genre/metascore/documen...

https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/guide/best-netflix-docu...

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