Documentary Films: A Lesson on Mastering the Art of Storytelling

It is the dramatic and pathos-ridden narratives that make documentaries on environmental issues compelling.

(Tomasso, 2016)

Climate change documentaries catalyze public awareness, concern, and motivation by adopting dramatic and pathos-ridden narratives to create a compelling storyline. This is evident in a study conducted by Banchero et al. (2020) who tried to create a documentary on ocean acidification in Alaska to explore the strategies that can enhance the message delivery techniques of environment documentaries. They found that compared to the instructive approach, creating an engaging and dramatic narrative elicited more emotional responses.

Melodrama, Empathy, and Action!

“These partial narratives are not asking people just to wait for the next installment, but to perform – to become part of the narrative” (Mancus, 2015, p. 96).

According to Mancus (2015), such documentaries are centered on the plot that the environment needs to be rescued by the viewers. They convince the audience to play the role of heroes to prevent global warming, the villain, from causing further damage to this planet. An Inconvenient Truth presents the best example to understand this (Mancus, 2015). The film opens with Al Gore complimenting the beauty of some pictures of the Earth taken by various satellites. As the film proceeds, he discusses the effects of global warming and urges the audience to take action. Thus, the idea of the damsel in distress needing to be rescued before the impending apocalypse hits is very evident in the film. This element of melodrama works successfully in provoking feelings of apprehension about the subject by signaling the need for immediate action.

Furthermore, these films assign the narrators the role of the protagonists to gain the trust of the audience. This facilitates them in gathering support from the viewers and conveying the urgency of the crisis. For instance, in An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore serves as the protagonist. He was crushed emotionally when his political right was deprived (Manus, 2015). Consequently, he aims to make things right by gathering support and educating people. Mancus (2015) states that this "suffering caused by misrecognition" helps Gore in portraying himself as an innocent hero on his quest to do something noble (p.92). In this way, these films fit the viewers in the role of allies who need to empathize with and unconditionally support the hero throughout his journey. Documentary films actively depend on the audience to engage with the narratives in order to influence them. Thus, the audience of these films plays a participatory role.

Another way in which climate change documentaries involve the audience is by highlighting the catastrophic nature of global warming and the idea of unhappy endings. For instance, An Inconvenient Truth ends with a list of suggestions to contribute towards building a healthy environment (Mancus, 2015). It does not have a defined ending because global warming is a perpetual reality. In other words, "A documentary like An Inconvenient Truth cannot give us a satisfying happy ending because the climate crisis has yet to be solved" (Mancus, 2015, p. 95). This implants the idea in the audience's minds that they need to act in order to experience a happy and complete ending. Thus, climate change documentaries urge viewers to act and not to passively view the film.

To sum up, the success of the climate change documentary films depends upon the use of dramatic narratives that demand the active engagement of the audience. These films are essentially performative modes of art requiring the viewers to perform the roles of leaders as well as supportive allies. By imposing the idea that the impending nature of the climate crisis needs attention, they compel the people to move forward. This mode of storytelling is accompanied by the use of evocative imagery, another visual rhetoric device, to produce more serious effects.