ABSTRACT

This chapter looks at docudramas on a broader array of topics to have students consider fact vs fiction, and why that matters. Many educators already use film adaptations, including having their students "read the novel/watch the film" and do a compare-and-contrast. Many students may have seen one or more of the current crop of docudramas – Lone Survivor, Saving Mr. Banks, 12 Years A Slave, Captain Phillips, Wolf of Wall Street, Philomena, and Mandela, just to name a few. Or they may be familiar with some of those movies from last year: Lincoln, Argo, Zero Dark Thirty, or Hitchcock. No doubt, if they have read the book (or are familiar with the facts of an historical event), then they tend to be more knowledgeable about and can speak to the "differences" as well as "what was omitted from the film".