Monday, September 30, 2019

Disipline in Schools Essay

The definitions of ‘violence’, ‘bullying’ and ‘indiscipline clearly incorporate a wide range of behaviors which can alter depending on both the context within which the behaviors are enacted, and, indeed, with whom they are directed towards. Discipline in schools is now passing through an extended eclipse. The problem of indiscipline permeates all facets of our life. It has, in fact brought us down to the knees Each day there are thousands of kids who go to school and get picked on in some way or another. Those same kids will probably come home and tell nobody about the pain that they are going through inside. There are numerous causes and solutions for this problem that we are facing in our schools. One main cause is that those doing the discipline problems suffer from bad parenting. I believe that parents need to be responsible for their children. They’re the ones who raised the child and filled them with their beliefs of what’s right and wrong. When a principle calls home about a child misbehaving and the parents do nothing , that just lets the child know that it’s alright for him or her to do it again. The parents will cause the child to form the mindset that he or she can do it again because they know that they won’t get reprimanded for their actions. Even if their child doesn’t get punished at home, that will lead the child to start acting out of control at school. Therefore, parents must take responsibility for their children’s behavior. The child needs to be teached that there will be consequences not only at school but homes as well for any discipline problems to be solved.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Alving in Search for Freedom Essay

Henrik Ibsen’s works are dealing with the well kept secrets and dogmas in society. His plays strip away the defending layers of the established ethical and moral virtues of social life and therefore create a great commotion and distress among the general public. Ibsen’s radical exposure of highly tabooed themes such as sexually transmitted diseases, euthanasia, incest, dysfunctional marriages, and the â€Å"angel of the house† role of women causes the painful response of the spectators facing the brightness of the truth. Prof. Bjorn Hemmer in his â€Å"The Dramatist Henrik Ibsen† laconically summarizes the magnitude of Ibsen’s impact on modern theatre and social conventions: â€Å"However, drama was the focus of his real lyrical spirit. For a period of many hard years, he faced bitter opposition. But he finally triumphed over the conservatism and aesthetic prejudices of the contemporary critics and audiences. More than anyone, he gave theatrical art a new vitality by bringing into European bourgeois drama an ethical gravity, a psychological depth, and a social significance which the theatre had lacked since the days of Shakespeare. In this manner, Ibsen strongly contributed to giving European drama a vitality and artistic quality comparable to the ancient Greek tragedies.† â€Å"Hedda Gabler† and â€Å"Ghosts† are the two plays this essay will focus on and especially on the importance for the two protagonists-Hedda Gabler and Mrs. Alving- to defeat social constraints according to which they have structured their lives. The great dramatist Ibsen masterfully reveals the disastrous consequences on his heroines’ psyches and souls this social canon of conformity inflicts. Through the subtle play of light, language and stage position, Ibsen reinforces the tragic circumstance in which Hedda and Mrs. Alving exist, the mundane lamp and living-room furniture encapsulate the deep tragedy of human beings and simultaneously show Ibsen’s naturalistic talent in portraying life. In â€Å"Hedda Gabler† the movement of the protagonist’s own pieces of furniture in the front and back room are emphasizing and helping even the spectator to anticipate her following action. Hedda Gabler is the daughter of General Gabler, who bequeathed her no financial independence, but a pair of dueling pistols and anachronistic, severely strict military aristocratic code of behaviour and is newly married to the historian George Tesman, whom she neither loves nor respect. She is conscious of her total dependency on the very reliable Tesman and this acknowledgement tears apart her being with rage and helplessness. In order to be able to continue living under these circumstances Hedda viciously emphasizes her intellectual and rank superiority over Tesman and his ever-sacrificing Aunt Julia and hurts them through her highly sarcastic language. She denies in her mind falling into the frame of the assigned female societal role and therefore slips fully into the indulgence of nothingness and boredom. This state could have remained for ever unchanged until the abrupt reintroduction of her former platonic lover Lovborg who becomes what before seemed to Hedda â€Å"impossible†, i.e. â€Å"†¦some goal in life to work toward.†2 Ibsen confronts her with the reformed alcoholic and genius Eilert Lovborg and throws her back in the idyllic past of General Gabler reading a newspaper and her experiencing the â€Å"forbidden world† through the wild and seductive stories of young routhen Lovborg on the sofa behind him. Lovborg is back on his feet fighting for a clean starting in life and writing books that are a tremendous success. But Hedda is not the inspiring power at Lovborg’s site anymore and that makes her extremely jealous of the woman who has such a positive power on him at the moment Mrs. Thea Elvsted and who is ironically a former flame of her husband. Hedda Gabler’s personality is a very complex mixture of the severely installed in her being notions of correct behaviour in social aspect of rank and class belonging and the fully suppressed personal creative potential. Hedda is lamed with fear; her whole existence is driven not by the positive force of creating, but the devastating nihilistic grip of fear and conventions of society. In order to contradict this haunting power of correctness and properness Hedda searches through Lovborg life experiences to live out her inborn human desires for creative fulfillment. But Hedda is a woman of good standing, she cannot do as she pleases, she can do as she pleases solely within the framework of the norms prescribed by public opinion. Lovborg is only a feeble opportunity for her to show her creativity, because the fear of a scandal creeps in and Hedda’s creative potential and suppressed sexuality are distorted into a storm of malevolence.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Homeland Security Alert In Lax And Other State Airports Essay

To overcome the increasing terrorists’ threats in most commercial airports many countries have boosted on their airports security both at home and abroad. Many countries especially Western have experienced many terrorist attack. This has forced them to invent on various alert measures to control these attacks mostly to their airports. Through Transportation Security Administration officers, Los Angeles have stepped forward to scrutiny their passengers and aeroplanes in their airport (Krikorian and Shogren, January 02, 2004). This action has been motivated by particular terror plot bringing about more concern on common remote control toys that are useful in denoting terrorists’ bombs. Aviation authorities in different countries have decided on carrying devices on carry-on bags. Passengers with remote control are subject to intense search. Remote control toys are the most devices used in lax and other airports. Air passengers face heightened security which is geared against possible grandiose terrorist attack. Los Angeles and other country’s government are doing everything to protect their country (Sauter and Carafano, 2005, p. 2). Transport Security Administration inspectors in airports in major cities like Los Angeles are emphasizing on passenger’s screening and their languages. There has been extra watchfulness with an appeal to Los Angeles and other nations not to forgo travel plans in their airports than other transports. There is need for alerts in airports; this should be done through air marshals especially on flights arriving from overseas and undercover observation around airports. Not only lax but also other airports have been on â€Å"Orange Alert† (Oldham, January 23, 2004). There are many places that competes Los Angeles in their potential targets both symbolic and substantial. For better protection against terrorism in airports the main prevention of the attack, always there should understand of the vulnerability that translates to threat. Co-coordinating of anti-terrorism efforts among local airports law enforcement agencies and Joint Terrorism Task Force has been adapted in Lax. They have tried as much as they can to plan and monitor means of preventing terrorism (Byman, 2008, p. 75). Cameras to monitor suspicious activity in airports with pilots completing terrorism awareness training have been adopted in most airports. All airport employees have been trained on security procedures with police increasing their patrol. Gas detection system has been improved to identify biological and chemical toxic. In airlines cockpit doors and locomotive doors has been adopted. There is also screening of passengers and their luggage. Los Angeles has identified potential facilities on terrorist attacks and established security plans. Different agencies through FBI, police departments and sheriff have teamed up to create Joint Regional Intelligence Center in which they can collect, share and analyze intelligence data on terrorism. More anti-chemical suits are required to protect airports from chemical attacks (Hutagalung, November 29, 2008). There is local law enforcement and fire agencies which uses different radio systems. Los Angeles has not established a comprehensive plan on evacuating large number of people in case of chemical or nuclear attack. There is computer software that records routine location and canine search at airports. Police offers data on possible terrorists’ targets and relative significance. These data is subject to change incase of security breach or suspicious activity (Oldham, January 23, 2004). Conclusion Like other airports, lax has been subject to federal rules mandating barriers perimeter around all facilities. A team for handling homeland security has been established incorporating different agencies. Improvement of security in communications, transportation and public infrastructure utilities have expanded ability of different countries in detecting and responding to terrorism. They have better trained those who are called on for first response in contaminated environment. Lax and other airports have tightened their security in response to terrorist. They have raised security alerts to the highest possible level as an indication that terrorist attack are coming up. Some measures are visible and others are not.

Friday, September 27, 2019

House Value Estimation Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

House Value Estimation - Research Paper Example The assessment of the price of a house is generally assessed through the few apparent factors like the construction value, design, and location of the house. The rough estimation usually does not encompass the related factors that are important to decide the value of a house and have a significant impact on the assessment process. The study of the factors other than the common factors is important to identify their role in the determination of the price or value of a home. Generally, a realtor’s claim would always be that the location is the most important factor when it comes to determining the value of a house or home. The formulation of a model in this regard is attempted through ‘regression’. For concrete assessment of this claim, some elaborated factors are included in this exercise. A home or a house can generally be viewed in terms of the properties it holds internally and the characteristics of the environment outside that home. The null hypothesis here wo uld be the realtor’s claim i.e. the location is the most important factor in assessing the house value whereas the alternate hypothesis refutes by stating that this is not the only factor but there are other significantly effective factors that are needed to be taken into account. There are a number of processes that can be used to predict house values. These include various probabilistic methods. Multivariate Spatial Method, Time Series analysis, FootyForecast Forecasting methods( a method that is similar to simple sequence method).

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Foreign policies of the European Union regarding military operations Essay

Foreign policies of the European Union regarding military operations - Essay Example prolonging to engage in WTO negotiations to attain an inspirational formula for dismantling of tariff structures, which are footed on its suggestion of a simple Swiss formula together with flexibilities that would fit into applied tariff. Further, EU will also examine further trade liberalisation mainly through sectoral approaches, which include goods of specific interest to developing nations and for chief EU precedence sectors, especially footwear, clothing and textiles, leather thereby directing to an intersection of market access norms among WTO members around the minimum potential stages of protection and dealing efficiently with non-tariff barriers. The truth is that EU converses with a â€Å"single voice† in trade which has facilitated it to impact the distributional results of international trade dialogues and to outline the global political economy. EU has made substantial efforts in liberalising the sway on trading of services on an international basis and has vigorously added to the development of global norms within the structure of WTO intended to stop unilateralism. As per Featherstone and Ginsberg, (1996) one of the most pivotal provinces that had been addressed by Europe’s common foreign policy is the traditional mutual relations by European member states with the USA which has added a European-US component connoting that relations with the US has mostly acknowledged by this transformation on the European side. Moreover, the European-US joint policies have more thoroughly synchronised and there have been many instances of mutual â€Å"backing.† (Tonra & Christiansen 2004:11). Further the association of EU with the Soviet Union and erstwhile Eastern Europe has been systematically reassessed and redesigned. Though the policies involving Eastern and Central Europe and the Soviet Union which were initiated in 1980s were conflicting during the initial years but after the Copenhagen Summit in June 1993, they were changed into a standpoint on EU’s

Equity Research Report on Whitbread plc Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Equity Research Report on Whitbread plc - Essay Example The ratio analysis highlights the fact that the liquidity position of Compass Group Plc is better than that of Whitbread Plc. However, it is deduced that the profitability condition of Whitbread Plc is better than the former. From the ratio analysis and equity valuation method, it can be concluded that Whitbread Plc is a profitable company for the investors since it has increased its net income over the four years period from 2010-2013. It is recommended that Whitbread Plc should increase its asset base by improve the cash and equivalent by decreasing its operating expense. The increase in asset base will assist the company to become one of the strongest players in the industry. Whitbread Plc  is a  coffee shop,  multinational  hotel and restaurant company, which are headquartered in  Dunstable, United Kingdom (UK). It is regarded as the largest division in  Premier Inn. Premier is known to be the largest hotel brand in UK, which encompasses about 650 hotels comprising over 50,000 rooms (Whitbread Plc., 2011). It is as the leading hospitality company in UK. The company employs around 43,000 individuals who devote their hard work for its success (Whitbread Plc., 2011). They are motivated to provide their best services to customers every day. The number of customers visiting their coffee shop, hotels and restaurants is 22 million every month (Whitbread Plc., 2011). The financial statement of Whitbread Plc highlights transactions that have taken place throughout the year. It not only depicts profit or loss of company, but also gives opinion to investors about condition of the company financials. The framework for financial reporting that is applied during preparation of financial statement is International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS), which is adopted by the European Union. The report is prepared for management of the company and also for investors. The managers have given their views regarding performance of the

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Madre Womens Rights Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Madre Womens Rights - Essay Example (Pol, 2009) However, the Reagan Admin worked domestically to roll back the victories of social MADRE's founders knew that while women's traditional social roles and discrimination against women were global in scope, they are experienced differently, depending on race, nationality, class, sex- uality and other aspects of identity. They saw that building on the strengths of those differences while focusing on the universality of women's roles and women's oppression could be a key to building lasting political partnerships between women from different communities within the US and between US-based women and those in other countries. (Madre, 2013) These made them to resurface their strengths in early 1980s.They have been on the move ever since, cham- pioning for the rights of the women. Why women rights? According to the New York Times by Robin, about 78% of the women are not enjoying their dem- ocratic rights. They are denied the right to freedom, speech and are treated unfairly at the place of resi- dence. Ordinarily, they are considered as weak ves- sels who will obey every command from their hus- †¢ †¢ to situate their struggles in the global context. The training in- fuses local human rights strug- gles with the power of interna- tional law At the same time, we help the partners identify their lack of sustaining resources as human rights violation. We provide resources to guarantee that the international arena is acces- sible to grassroots activists.

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Debates in Australian History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Debates in Australian History - Essay Example The term may also be used to denote those programs or agencies which are independent in nature within an institution on which the responsibility of selecting, preserving and offering access or archival documents is bestowed on. The third meaning refers to repositories or buildings that are used for purposes of housing various collections of archival material. This paper, however, aims at presenting an in-depth understanding of archival documents as a broad collection of media and other traditional textual materials, including films, photographs, sound recordings, videotapes, magnetic disks and magnetic tapes (Shultz, Hoffman & Reiter-Palmon 2001, p.23). Oral history, on the other hand, refers to the formal, well-rehearsed accounts of the past presented by traditional bearers who have been culturally endorsed to informal conversations regarding to things and incidents of the old days among the members of the family, coworkers and/or neighbors. Oral history may also entail printed comp ilations of old stories which were told about both the past and the present experiences or even recorded interviews with certain persons deemed to have an imperative story to tell (Mnjama 1993, p.83). Each and every of these uses has a certain specific currency. Undeniably, a majority of the people throughout history has got to learn about the past through spoken words. In addition, for those individuals in the society who are history-conscious, firsthand accounts of the past have been so preserved for the record and to be precise, at those moments when they were historical actors and with their memories of the pass from the scene. Being histographical methods, both oral history and archival documents have had their merits, as well as demerits. Advantages Archival documents are important cultural resources. This is because these materials have been authored in such a conscious way so as to not inform, but also perpetuate knowledge, convey feelings, ideas and opinions. Moreover, the authoring of archival documents is geared towards entertaining and availing information about their subject (McKemmish 1993, p.9). Archival documents are customarily a part of the broader group of records which are closely related. Since they are created or accumulated in the course of undertaking business, these documents do play a central role in facilitating the business process. Another of the advantages of archival documents is that they are useful for historical and/or research purposes. They actually provide a doorway through which both the past and present events can be examined. Furthermore, a variety of researchers, including scholars, students at various levels, genealogists, biographers, local historians, documentary filmmakers and independent writers, take advantage of these archival documents (Lucas 1981, p.228). It is also worth noting that archival documents can be used for a number of purposes and by assorted audiences. As thus, records of organizations which do not have their personal institutional archives, as well as individual personal papers are most a times actively sought by the historical societies. Additionally, archival documents are the basis for legal evidence, personal and collective memory and organizational knowledge. Since archival documents are undeniably information objects serving as an evidence of the past events,

Monday, September 23, 2019

Health Policy Analysis Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Health Policy Analysis - Assignment Example Patient navigators and navigator programs therefore became necessary in terms of providing the much needed connection between patient populations and providers with an aim of improving healthcare outcomes. Patient navigator and outreach services dates back to the year 1971 when then US President Richard Nixon ratified the National Cancer Act. Since then there have been significant improvements in healthcare outcomes in terms of reducing cancer related mortality. This can be attributed to better measures at preventing, screening and diagnosing cancer as well as the use of better treatments for the same. However, poor persons, those without any medical insurance and those without sufficient insurances covers have continued to show low 5-year survival and high rates of mortality. Disconnects still exist between discovery and delivery enterprises and also between what is known and what is applied to all people. Disparities arise when medical interventions meant for all are not equally distributed. Disparities are also occasioned by a combination of economic, cultural and social issues (Freeman and Rodriguez, 2011). Poverty is a very important cause of healthcare disparities when it comes to the management of cancer and other chronic illnesses. Poverty is a complex problem associated with other issues such as lower levels of educational achievement, squalid living conditions, total lack or insufficient social assistance, lack of employment, risky lifestyles and reduced healthcare service access. As per the 2010 national census, 14.3% of the US population representing a whooping 43.6 million persons was poor the year 2009 alone. In the same year 16.7% (50.7 million) of American citizens did not have any health insurance cover. Furthermore statistics have shown a huge gap in terms of the five year survival rates for cancers between the poor and the rich; survival is ten percent lower among the poor Americans compared to the rich. An emerging

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Blacks in the Revolutionary War Essay Example for Free

Blacks in the Revolutionary War Essay Blacks in the Revolutionary War1 Blacks in the Revolutionary War African American Studies Latasha Gating September 20, 2012 LaChanda K. Clemons Blacks in the Revolutionary War2 Looking back at the history of the United States, it is evident that the Revolutionary War impacted the country a great deal. It was the first war fought with slaves thanks to Lord Dunmore’s controversial proclamation. Historian Benjamin Quarles stated â€Å"The Negros role in the Revolutionary War can be best understood by realizing his major loyalty was not to a place nor to a people but to a principle. There were black loyalists, black sailors, black patriots and black regiments who fought and died in the name of Independence. It has been estimated that over 5,000 African Americans served as soldiers for the Continental army and more than 20,000 fought for the British cause. Slavery in Colonial America is noted to have begun in 1619 with the arrival of 20 African slaves on the Dutch ship named Man-of-war. The slaves made up over half the population in the colonies although they were seen more so as property instead of people. In 1776, there were about 500,000 African American men, women and children slaves. Everyone had a reason for taking part in the war. There were factors that motivated the blacks to take part in such a battle as well. The text mentions that when it came to fighting between the Patriots on one side and their Loyalist American allies on the other, African Americans joined the side that offered freedom. Having that choice of gaining freedom in exchange for serving in the military was indeed motivation. Other motives for blacks were the Blacks in the Revolutionary War3 desire for adventure, belief in the justice and the goals of the revolution and the possibility of receiving a bounty. The Continental navy and The Royal Navy signed blacks into the navy because of the manpower shortages at sea. Some blacks had been captured from the royal navy and used by the Patriots on their vessels. They also served as seamen on British vessel. Slaves and free slaves served as seaman. Because so many Patriot leaders resisted employing black troops, by mid-1775, the British had taken the initiative in recruiting African Americans. Revolutionary leaders feared using blacks in the arm forces. They were afraid that the slaves who were armed would uprise against them. In May 1775 the Massachusetts Committee of Safety put a stop to enlisting slaves in the armies of the colony. However, this did not apply to the blacks who were already serving in the army. 1775-1783 the navy recruits freed black slaves and runaway slaves. Lord Dunmore, born John Murray, was the last Royal Governor of Virginia. Because he was short of men, Dunmore issued a proclamation stating that all able bodied men to assist him in the defense of the colony, including the slaves of rebels. He promised freedom to the blacks who served. After doing so in a month he had 800 soldiers. The purpose of his Proclamation was to declare martial law and to encourage slaves of rebels in Virginia to leave their masters and support the loyalist cause â€Å"All indentured servants, Negroes, or others†¦free that are able Blacks in the Revolutionary War4 and willing to bear arms†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Such an act outrage Virginians. Those that took Dunmore up on his word range between 800 and 2,000. The Virginia Congress replied to his Proclamation with the Dunmore’s wasn’t as successful as his plan out, the number of his soldiers decreased due to smallpox outbreaks. Dunmore’s Proclamation was the first mass emancipation of slaves in American history. After the war ended, over 5,000 blacks left for Jamaica or St. Augustine because they were the property of loyalist that they would never gain their freedom from slavery. By 1786, many were back in bondage. There were those who were Patriots’ slaves but sided with the British were promised their freedom and was granted such. Many black patriots found that the post war military held no rewards for them. So many men served in the armed forces which meant that their wives were left behind and had to take on their husband roles. Their lives changed a great deal during the Revolutionary War. The women, who could, serve the Colonial military forces and interacted with the male soldiers in camp. They were usually the wives and daughters of the male soldiers. The cooked, did laundry and cared for those that were sick. There also some who fought in the military battles: Margaret Cochran Corbin and Captain Molly. Molloy’s husband had taught her how to load and fire cannons. Black women, many of whom were slaves, served both Americans and the British in the capacity of nurses, laundresses and cooks. Blacks in the Revolutionary War5 Many African American soldiers fought and died for the sake of the Revolutionary War. The war ended in 1783, slavery was dying in the North and declining in Chesapeake. What was truly the purpose of Blacks fighting if they did not attain freedom at the end of the war? Were the lives lost beneficially to the slaves or was it just a gimmick to get blacks to stand in stops where white soldiers have already died in. Blacks in the Revolutionary War6 Bibliography Georgii, Colette. May 30, 2007. Slavery in Colonial America. www. helium. com/items/365359-Colonial-Early- Gabriel, Brian. Women’s roles and lives in the revolutionary war. http://www. ehow. com/) (http://blackloyalist. com/canadiandigitalcollection/story/revolution/dunmore. htm) Halpern, Rick (2002). Slavery and Emancipation. Blackwell Publishing. Pp. 90-91 Harold, Stanley, Hine, W. C. , Hine, D. C. The African American Odyssey: Volume 1, 5th Edition. Prentice Hall. 2011. Pearson Education, Inc. . (Scribner, Robert L. (1983). Revolutionary Virginia, the Road to Independence. University of Virginia Press. Pp. xxiv. ) [ 2 ]. Scribner, Robert L. (1983). Revolutionary Virginia, the Road to Independence. University of Virginia Press. Pp. xxiv [ 3 ]. Halpern, Rick (2002). Slavery and Emancipation. Blackwell Publishing. Pp. 90-91 [ 4 ]. Harold, Stanley, Hine, W. C. , Hine, D. C. The African American Odyssey: Volume 1, 5th Edition. Prentice Hall. 2011. Pearson Education, Inc. [ 6 ]. Gabriel, Brian. Women’s roles and lives in the revolutionary war. http://www. ehow. com/)

Saturday, September 21, 2019

The History Of Documentaries Film Studies Essay

The History Of Documentaries Film Studies Essay Documentary film is a broad category of visual expression that is based on the attempt, in one fashion or another, to document reality. A documentary film is a movie that attempts, in some way, to document reality. Even though the scenes are carefully chosen and arranged, they are not scripted, and the people in a documentary film are not actors. Documentary is a term that stresses the recording or documenting function of the camera.   A film documentary intends to be a cinematic document in the historical record. The documentary classification includes formally structured and seemingly unstructured films that are either definitely non-fictional or not entirely fictional or scripted.   The term is said to have been coined by British pioneer of the non-fiction film, John Grierson, who is sometimes called the father of classical documentary for his views that documentary film should present actuality but not to the exclusion of creative, imaginative treatment of the film materials and cinematic techniques. Documentary filmmakers seek to render the world as they see it.    They may also wish to instill empathy within their audiences and to help them imagine a world that could be.   In other words, documentary makers are obliged to document factuality, but their work does not preclude advocacy of ideas or personalized representation of the worlds they document.   Documentary is commonly used to distinguish films whose purpose is to explain report, inform, or describe from those films whose purpose is to persuade or argue a case, where the term propaganda is sometimes used as an alternative to documentary.   Propaganda films are seen as manipulative, the formalist extreme in distortion for the purpose of changing the thoughts or actions of the audience.   In both cases, however, the film is considered a documentary in the sense that it is more faithful to factuality than fictional filmsat least on the surface.   Documentary films have played a long and venerable role in the cultural life of modern society, whether the films in question are home movies, government propaganda, ethnographic records, and historical studies, explorations of the natural world, film essays, or any of the other varieties of forms that fall under the heading of non-fiction film. With the advent of digital cameras and computer-based non-linear editing programs, more and more people have access to the tools for creating such films, fueling a vast new interest in the documentary form, and through their creation bringing to light new and unexpected arenas of the human experience. Although documentary film originally referred to movies shot on film stock, it has subsequently expanded to include video and digital productions that can be either direct-to-video or made for a television series. Documentary, as it applies here, works to identify a filmmaking practice, a cinematic tradition, and mode of audience reception that is continually evolving and is without clear boundaries. Sometimes, a documentary film may rely on voice-over narration to describe what is happening in the footage; in other films, the footage will speak for itself. Often, a documentary film will include interviews with the people in the film. The earliest film of any sort was a documentary film. These featured single shots of actual events, such as a boat leaving shore, and were referred to as actuality films. Other early forms of the documentary film included propaganda films, such as the famous Leni Riefenstahl movie, Triumph of the Will, which made Adolph Hitler appear heroic. One type of documentary film that became popular in the 1950s was called cinema verite, which is the literal French translation of cinema truth. Cinema verite is a type of documentary film that includes no narration; the camera simply follows the subject. One famous example of such a film is Dont Look Back a biography film about Bob Dylan, covering his tour of the United Kingdom in 1965. In recent years, the documentary film genre has become more popular and high profile, though it is still far less popular generally than the action or adventure film genre. Many of todays examples of the documentary film have a political or otherwise controversial agenda, such as An Inconvenient Truth, Super Size Me, and Fahrenheit 911. Michael Moores Fahrenheit 911, which documented the Bush familys ties to Saudi Arabia and Osama bin Laden, was the most popular documentary film of all time, with over $228 million US Dollars in ticket sales. HISTORY PRE-1900 The film maker Mustafah Arrafat used the term documentary in 1926 to refer to any nonfiction film medium, including travelogues and instructional films. The earliest moving pictures were, by definition, documentaries. They were single-shot moments captured on film: a train entering a station, a boat docking, or a factory of people getting off work. Early film (pre-1900) was dominated by the novelty of showing an event. These short films were called actuality films. (The term documentary was not coined until 1926.) Very little storytelling took place before the turn of the century, due mostly to technological limitations, namely, that movie cameras could hold only very small amounts of film. Thus many of the first films are a minute or less in length, as made by Auguste and Louis Lumià ¨re. 1900-1920 Travelogue films were very popular in the early part of the 20th century. Some were known as scenics. Scenics were among the most popular sort of films at the time.[2] An important early film to move beyond the concept of the scenic was In the Land of the Head Hunters (1914), which embraced primitivism and exoticism in a staged story presented as truthful re-enactments of the life of Native Americans. Also during this period Frank Hurleys documentary film about the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition South was released (1919). It documented the failed Antarctic expedition led by Ernest Shackleton in 1914. 1920s ROMANTICISM With Robert J. Flahertys Nanook of the North in 1922, documentary film embraced romanticism; Flaherty went on to film a number of heavily staged romantic films, usually showing how his subjects would have lived 100 years earlier and not how they lived right then (for instance, in Nanook of the North Flaherty did not allow his subjects to shoot a walrus with a nearby shotgun, but had them use a harpoon instead). Some of Flahertys staging, such as building a roofless igloo for interior shots, was done to accommodate the filming technology of the time. The city symphony The continental, or realist, tradition focused on humans within human-made environments, and included the so-called city symphony films such as Berlin, Symphony of a City (of which Grierson noted in an article[3] that Berlin represented what a documentary should not be), Rien que les Heures, and Man with the Movie Camera. These films tend to feature people as products of their environment, and lean towards the avant-garde. Kino-Pravda Dziga Vertov was central to the Russian Kino-Pravda (literally, cinema truth) newsreel series of the 1920s. Vertov believed the camera with its varied lenses, shot-counter shot editing, time-lapse, ability to slow motion, stop motion and fast-motion could render reality more accurately than the human eye, and made a film philosophy out of it. Newsreel tradition The newsreel tradition is important in documentary film; newsreels were also sometimes staged but were usually re-enactments of events that had already happened, not attempts to steer events as they were in the process of happening. For instance, much of the battle footage from the early 20th century was staged; the cameramen would usually arrive on site after a major battle and re-enact scenes to film them. 1920s-1940s The propagandist tradition consists of films made with the explicit purpose of persuading an audience of a point. One of the most notorious propaganda films is Leni Riefenstahls film Triumph of the Will. Frank Capras Why We Fight series was a newsreel series in the United States, commissioned by the government to convince the U.S. public that it was time to go to war. In Canada the Film Board, set up by Grierson, was created for the same propaganda reasons. It also created newsreels that were seen by their national governments as legitimate counter-propaganda to the psychological warfare of Nazi Germany (orchestrated by Joseph Goebbels). In Britain, a number of different filmmakers came together under John Grierson. They became known as the Documentary Film Movement. John Grierson, Alberto Cavalcanti, Harry Watt, Basil Wright and Humphrey Jennings amongst others succeeded in blending propaganda, information and education with a more poetic aesthetic approach to documentary. Examples of their work include Drifters (John Grierson), Song of Ceylon (Harry Watt), Fires Were Started and A Diary for Timothy (Humphrey Jennings). Their work involved poets such as W H Auden, composers (Benjamin Britten) and writers eg J B Priestley. Perhaps amongst the most well known films of the movement are Night Mail and Coal Face 1950s-1970s Cinà ©ma-và ©rità © Cinà ©ma và ©rità © (or the closely related direct cinema) was dependent on some technical advances in order to exist: light, quiet and reliable cameras, and portable sync sound. Cinà ©ma và ©rità © and similar documentary traditions can thus be seen, in a broader perspective, as a reaction against studio-based film production constraints. Shooting on location, with smaller crews, would also happen in the French New Wave, the filmmakers taking advantage of advances in technology allowing smaller, handheld cameras and synchronized sound to film events on location as they unfolded. Although the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, there are important differences between cinà ©ma và ©rità © (Jean Rouch) and the North American Direct Cinema (or more accurately Cinà ©ma direct, pioneered among others by French Canadian Michel Brault, Pierre Perrault, Americans Robert Drew, Richard Leacock, Frederick Wiseman and Albert and David Maysles). The directors of the movement take different viewpoints on their degree of involvement. Kopple and Pennebaker, for instance, choose non-involvement (or at least no overt involvement), and Perrault, Rouch, Koenig, and Kroitor favor direct involvement or even provocation when they deem it necessary. The films Primary and Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (both produced by Robert Drew), Harlan County, USA (directed by Barbara Kopple), Dont Look Back (D. A. Pennebaker), Lonely Boy (Wolf Koenig and Roman Kroitor), Chronicle of a Summer (Jean Rouch) and Golden Gloves (Gilles Groulx) are all frequently deemed cinà ©ma và ©rità © films. The fundamentals of the style include following a person during a crisis with a moving, often handheld, camera to capture more personal reactions. There are no sit-down interviews, and the shooting ratio (the amount of film shot to the finished product) is very high, often reaching 80 to one. From there, editors find and sculpt the work into a film. The editors of the movement such as Werner Nold, Charlotte Zwerin, Muffie Myers, Susan Froemke, and Ellen Hovde are often overlooked, but their input to the films was so vital that they were often given co-director credits. Famous cinà ©ma và ©rità ©/direct cinema films include Les Raquetteurs, Showman, Salesman, The Children Were Watching, Primary, Behind a Presidential Crisis, and Grey Gardens. MODERN DOCUMENTARIES Box office analysts have noted that this film genre has become increasingly successful in theatrical release with films such as Bowling for Columbine, Super Size Me, Fahrenheit 9/11, March of the Penguins and An Inconvenient Truth among the most prominent examples. Compared to dramatic narrative films, documentaries typically have far lower budgets which makes them attractive to film companies because even a limited theatrical release can be highly profitable. Fahrenheit 9/11 set a new record for documentary profits, earning over US$228 million in ticket sales and selling over 3 million DVDs. The nature of documentary films has changed in the past 20 years from the cinema verità © tradition. Landmark films such as The Thin Blue Line by Errol Morris incorporated stylized re-enactments, and Michael Moores Roger and Me placed far more interpretive control with the director. Indeed, the commercial success of these documentaries may derive from this narrative shift in the documentary form, leading some critics to question whether such films can truly be called documentaries; critics sometimes refer to these works as mondo films or docu-ganda. However, directorial manipulation of documentary subjects has been noted since the work of Flaherty, and may be endemic to the form. The recent success of the documentary genre, and the advent of DVDs, has made documentaries financially viable even without a cinema release. Yet funding for documentary film production remains elusive, and within the past decade the largest exhibition opportunities have emerged from within the broadcast market, making filmmakers beholden to the tastes and influences of the broadcasters who have become their largest funding source.[6] Modern documentaries have some overlap with television forms, with the development of reality television that occasionally verges on the documentary but more often veers to the fictional or staged. The making of documentary shows how a movie or a computer game was produced. Usually made for promotional purposes, it is closer to an advertisement than a classic documentary. Modern lightweight digital video cameras and computer-based editing have greatly aided documentary makers, as has the dramatic drop in equipment prices. An example of a film to take full advantage of this change was Martin Kunert and Eric Manes Voices of Iraq, where 150 DV cameras were sent to Iraq during the war and passed out to Iraqis to record themselves. THE EARLIEST DOCUMENTARIES: Originally, the earliest documentaries in the US and France were either short newsreels, instructional pictures, records of current events, or travelogues (termed actualities) without any creative story-telling, narrative, or staging. The first attempts at film-making, by the Lumiere Brothers and others, were literal documentaries, e.g., a train entering a station, factory workers leaving a plant, etc. The first documentary re-creation, Sigmund Lubins one-reel The Unwritten Law (1907) (subtitled A Thrilling Drama Based on the Thaw-White Tragedy) dramatized the true-life murder on June 25, 1906 of prominent architect Stanford White by mentally unstable and jealous millionaire husband Harry Kendall Thaw over the affections of showgirl Evelyn Nesbit (who appeared as herself). [Alluring chorine Nesbit would become a brief sensation and the basis for Richard Fleischers biopic film The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (1955), portrayed by Joan Collins, and E.L. Doctorows musical and film Ragtime (1981), portrayed by an Oscar-nominated Elizabeth McGovern.] The first official documentary or non-fiction narrative film was Robert Flahertys Nanook of the North (1922), an ethnographic look at the harsh life of Canadian Inuit Eskimos living in the Arctic, although some of the films scenes of obsolete customs were staged. Flaherty, often regarded as the Father of the Documentary Film, also made the landmark film Moana (1926) about Samoan Pacific islanders, although it was less successful. The term documentary was first used in a review of Flahertys 1926 film. His first sound documentary feature film was Man of Aran (1934), regarding the rugged Aran islanders/fishermen located west of Irelands Galway Bay. Flahertys fourth (and last) major feature documentary was his most controversial, Louisiana Story (1948), filmed on location in Louisianas wild bayou country. Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, better known for King Kong (1933), directed the landmark documentary Grass: A Nations Battle for Life (1925), the first documentary epic, which traced the travels of the Bakhtyari tribe in Persia during their migrational wanderings to find fresh grazing lands. The filmmakers next film was the part-adventure, travel documentary filmed on location in the Siamese (Thailand) jungle, Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness (1927), about a native tribal family. Other European documentary film-makers made a series of so-called non-fictional city symphonies. Alberto Cavalcanti and Walter Ruttman directed Berlin Symphony of a Big City (1927, Ger.) about the German city in the late 1920s. Similarly, the Soviet Unions (and Dziga Vertovs) avante-garde, experimental documentary The Man with a Movie Camera (1929) presented typical daily life within several Soviet cities (Moscow, Kiev, Odessa) through an exhilarating montage technique. And French director Jean Vigo made On the Subject of Nice (1930). Sergei Eisensteins October (Oktyabr)/10 Days That Shook the World (1928, USSR) re-enacted in documentary-style, the days surrounding the Bolshevik Revolution, to commemorate the events 10th anniversary.