A Comparative Study on the Representation of Reality in Animated Documentary and Documentary Game

Abstract

Since the origins of documentary film, there has been much discussion over its treatment of ‘reality’. These considerations become increasingly more complicated in the scholarly work on animated documentaries and documentary games, two types of hybrid media that aim to document their subject matter but that have faced some resistance regarding their documentary value. Animated documentaries and documentary games represent reality in their own imaginative manner, being flexible and changing the possibilities of how the public may perceive certain events. Through animation, creators are able to show thoughts, feelings and even dreams, and through gameplay, game designers can engage their players using introspection. Both types, specially animated documentaries, have been studied closely and discussed at length thus far. This article aims to expand on the discussion of each form of media and to explore the links that exist between them with regard to their representations of reality, while also correlating their nuances with live-action documentaries. To this end, the productions Chicago 10 in 2007, Super Columbine Massacre! In 2005 and Waltz with Bashir in 2008 will be analyzed here while specifically focusing on their different representations of reality.