Caveh Zahedi - Blog (Success Hurts)

There was a big piece in the San Francisco Chronicle today about the film. It was about as positive as one could ask for, and kind of delightfully written, but it's always fascinating to see the tiny distortions to the truth that are made to maximize journalistic appeal. The same is true with filmmaking in general, but journalism purports to a greater fidelity to "truth." It's all true, but it's phrased in ways that make the truth just incrementally more absurd and dramatic. I'm not complaining. I actually like it. But it's like looking into a distorting mirror at the funhouse. It's fun, but is that really how one looks?

Comments

Ulysses? Seriously? What happened to How to Overthrow the American Government?

Posted by Michael on Apr 3, 2006 at 05:51PM

Michael,
Still doing "How to Overthrow the U.S. Government" next. "Ulysses" is the one after that.

Posted by caveh on Apr 3, 2006 at 09:15PM

I actually have the same problem with documentary. It purports to a greater fidelity to 'truth', which, in my mind, makes it much more deceptive and manipulative than fiction. That doesn't have much to do with what you're talking about here (except that you've made a documentary that you've been trying to reconcile with yourself for various reasons associated with truth and purity for weeks on this blog); mostly I am bringing it up cuz it's always been something I've felt and never had the words for. Thanks for letting me steal your words for a minute.

Posted by spiderlady on Apr 4, 2006 at 03:56PM

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