ABSTRACT
Documentaries are also inherently propagandistic, in that they seek to convince the audience of some "truth". They can even support activism by educating viewers on a particular, often politically charged topic and urging a specific form of action to take. Recent documentaries frequently build narratives around investigations. The prosecutorial spirit and advocacy mission of recent documentaries find a perfect fit with disaster documentaries addressing everything from global climate change to oil spills, from tsunamis and nuclear accidents to war atrocities. Best Documentary Oscar-nominated Gasland and the sequel Gasland II emphasize the dangers of "fracking", while FrackNation argues that shale gas may well be a miracle answer to America's twenty-first-century energy needs. Audiences may never flock to political documentaries as they do to blockbuster fictional films, but that fact matters less to filmmakers than do such films' potential for making a cultural splash and achieving measurable political effect.
