Not sure weather it's me, or the times (most likely,the times), but documentaries seem so much different now than from what I remember. With Media being so much more apart of our lives than ever before, it makes it even easier to weave a doc that acts like a movie plot narrative.
Case in point, Dream/Killer is focused on Bill Ferguson, whose son, Ryan was convicted of murder. Knowing his son well and after seeing what happen during his trial, Bill is certain that his son got a bum rap and spends the next ten years obsessing over the case so much that he is able to find the holes Ryan's trail fell into in order to get a retrial.
It was laid out like an intense drama. They set up the events of the story first, then we really got to know Bill as a character, and they make us understand his determination, which makes the suspense of the movie even better, cause I could have just looked up on Google what happen before the film was over, but the documentary builds an investment in wanting to see how they unfold the hold thing
It's a lot like this movie Conviction with Hillary Swank and Sam Rockwell where a single mother becomes a lawyer to get smart enough to get her brother out of a lifetime sentence.
Conviction was based on a true story, but I guess that story happen before Trails were video taped, one hundred news channels existed to cover one story, and everyone had a camera on their phone to post something online.
Dream/Killer had all those elements, and what ever they did not have to tell the narrative with is when they used animation, like when Ryan tell us what it was like to spend 10 years in prison, animation is fairly popular in contemporary docs,
And of course, they used an age old documentary trick... Interviews from those who witness the events unravel first hand.
As a contemporary style documentary, it was done very basic and average, but that's good cause it let nothing distract it from the amazing story of a father's determination and love of his son.
Great crime drama!
