“CAN ANIMATION BE A DOCUMENTARY?”
‘Animated Documentaries’ a visually artistic form in which documentaries can be portrayed. Not all documentaries can be depicted in the Animated form, such as Live action where most of the footages are already seen in a live action format, also a clear live footage would be preferred by the audience rather than an animated one. But in certain instances, Animated Documentary will be the best choice in order to portray Abstract thoughts or an event that has not been witnessed by the people or have no records of it.
In illustrating the abstract things such as Ideas, Thoughts, Feelings etc. animation would be the best choice. For instance, RAY the Oscar winning animated short film which was created by Chris Landreth.
In the documentary Chris was successful in portraying the life of Ryan Larking, where he shows an artist’s greatest fear which includes addiction, panhandling which happens on the streets etc. Computer generated Characters were used in the entire short film where he interviews his friend Ryan and his thoughts as well as how he feels. Thus animated documentary is an artistic way to depict facts and feelings to the audience.
reference: Chris Landreth (2004) ‘Rayn’ : reference site : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbkBjZKBLHQ&t=110s