Textual Analysis of Documentary - What Do I Desire

Textual Analysis of Documentary

This documentary is called "What do I desire?" and is a nominated short documentary by Naseh Jrab.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNxDmWNVSNw


The film was nominated for:

 Best Picture, Best National Picture, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Sound and Best Poster.

It opens up with a Steve Maraboli quote, “Cemetries are full of unfulfilled dreams… countless echoes of ‘could have’ and ‘should have’… countless books unwritten… countless songs using… I want to live my life in such a way that when my body is laid to rest, it will be a well needed rest from a life well lived, a song well sung, a book well written, opportunities well explored, and a love well expressed”

It starts out, typically like many documentaries involving social problems with a quote. The quote is meant to get the audience thinking about a certain issue relating back to the main topic. You leave this up for a bit, really so the audience can start asking questions in their heads. The documentary talks about what you really want to be when you grow up. This is tackling another social issue, they talk a lot about whether you are actually doing what you want to do with your life or if you're doing what you've grown up being told what to do.

The narrating then begins, it is a very dull voice at first speaking rather slowly, combining this with the opening images of a sad boy and the slow music creates a depressed mood. The narrating is very direct, as if they are speaking straight to the audience asking them to do things and visualize certain realities, this again is to try and make the matter appear really important and it easily catches the attention of the audience. Many rhetorical questions are always asked to keep the audience thinking.

Generally there is just dark lighting in the intro combined with close ups of the kid in order for the audience to understand the issue. Mostly the narration fits with the shots, action shots of what is being said are constantly being shown.

For example when the statement about money: "what if money wasn't an object"

The story develops quickly from being about the general to becoming very personal, the narrator talks about his own problems and what he went through. This then again gets related back to the general social issue, this is done so the audience can see that this issue is a common problem and is done by adding a real life situation. The narrator keeps relating to situations you experience everyday, especially as a student and keeps asking questions to whether you are actually doing what you enjoy.

The way this story is developed is to bring the audience through an emotional journey, they are made to understand the size of this issues through a mix of statements relating to their everyday and stories being told about the narrators life. The background music picks itself up through the film, this is also as the mood changes and becomes more inspirational. Statements are made saying what you should do, shots are always more inspirational now giving the audience hope.

Statement reads: "Its better to have a short life that is full of what you love doing, than a long life spent in a miserable way"