The entertainment we will talk about most in 2020? Nonfiction. Why?
Think about the phenomenon of “water cooler talk.” What does it bring to mind? Likely some major events in entertainment history — the cliffhangers, plot twists, and milestones that have shaped popular culture. What did you think of the final season of Game of Thrones? Which Avengers will survive Endgame? And what in the world was with that smoke monster on Lost? When we talk about water-cooler talk, what we usually talk about is fiction, but recently that’s begun to change. As we enter the 2020s, the American public is as excited about documentaries as they ever were about what happened on Breaking Bad.
From Robert Durst and The Jinx to last year’s rival Fyre Festival documentaries to 2018’s Three Identical Strangers, documentaries are the topic of casual conversation and invigorated discussion more than ever before. But the nonfiction revolution isn’t limited to film or television — we’re talking about what we listen to these days as much as what we watch. True crime podcasts like Serial and Dirty John drive discourse and spark debate as much as, if not more than, fictional crime shows or police procedurals ever have. After all, there’s a lot more to say about Making A Murderer, Don’t F**k With Cats, or Abducted In Plain Sight than your average episode of Law & Order: SVU.
In 2018 and 2019, we also saw two different films released about one of the most iconic moments in American history, Neil Armstrong landing on the moon. The first to hit theaters was First Man which presumably had the whole package: an award-winning star in Ryan Gosling, a critical darling in Claire Foy, splashy special effects and a big IMAX release, and an acclaimed director whose previous movie almost won Best Picture. Then there was Todd Douglas Miller’s Apollo 11, a documentary made entirely of archival footage from the NASA vaults. Apollo 11 had a $13,750 per screen average opening weekend before expanding into additional IMAX theaters whereas First Man without international receipt wouldn’t have made back its budget: it opened to a slim $16 million, eventually only grossing $45 million domestically. Both movies received IMAX runs, but only one felt like a major event to moviegoers. That’s because First Man only recreated history where Apollo 11 actually was history — this proves how documentaries offer a be true, paradigm-shifting experiences for viewers in ways fiction films just can’t.
What’s attracting new viewers to nonfiction isn’t just a thirst for juicy storytelling, but the medium’s relationship to the real world. It’s easy enough to have an opinion about Stranger Things or Watchmen, but very rarely do our deeply-held feelings about the latest prestige drama make any kind of impact. Take Serial as an example, which produced a number of spin-off series, in addition to the recent HBO documentary The Case Against Adnan Syed. The immensely popular podcast didn’t just lead to public arguments about Syed’s guilt or innocence, it resulted in his case being reconsidered and reinvestigated.
The relationship between the media we consume and the world we live in goes far beyond true crime. Nonfiction media doesn’t just bring issues to light, it can inspire viewers to find solutions and speak truth to power. The 2013 documentary Blackfish, which investigates the cruel conditions SeaWorld subjected their killer whales to, led to a massive backlash and series of boycotts against the amusement park, nicknamed “The Blackfish Effect.” Businesses and celebrities terminated their relationships with SeaWorld, and over the course of a year, the company’s annual revenue dropped from $37 million to $6 million — a whopping 84% decrease. In 2016, SeaWorld finally announced that they’d put a permanent end to the use of orcas in their parks, all thanks to one little film that made a huge impact.
In the era of #MeToo and #TimesUp, documentaries like Surviving R. Kelly, At the Heart of Gold, and Finding Neverland are telling the stories of survivors and victims that have been ignored and unheard for far too long. While social media has been powerful in offering a platform from which we can call out abusers and hold them accountable, documentary filmmaking offers a permanent record of injustice and cruelty — it’s much harder to make a film go away than a tweet.
In an era when contemporary journalism and mainstream media are under siege and struggling financially, documentaries are fulfilling our need as viewers for cutting-edge information and rich storytelling at the same time. Today’s informed audiences don’t want the nonfiction experience to stop at the edges of the screen or exist only in their earbuds; they need the content they watch to interact and engage with the world around them. Films like The White Helmets — about the search-and-rescue teams and medical volunteers doing vital work in war-torn Syria — and For Sama (nominated for an 2020 Oscar) — about one woman’s personal five year journey through the mundane and and devastating moments for the Syrian civil war — shed light on crucial humanitarian issues, shaping how we see our planet and the actions we take as concerned global citizens. A fictional film about the same issue might raise a certain amount of awareness, but nonfiction shows a way forward, calling us to get involved.
Consumers are more aware than ever of the impact their personal actions have, thanks in large part to the rigorous investigative reporting of documentaries like Blackfish. It’s not enough for companies to make a good product or offer an enjoyable experience; we want the businesses we support with our money to give back, make ethical decisions, and help create a better world — in fact, 81% of millennials want companies to be good corporate citizens. The same goes for the media we consume in the 21st century. Entertainment isn’t enough anymore — engagement, action, and societal change are the new criteria by which we evaluate the films and programs we choose to spend our time with. Audiences are flocking to the original nonfiction content produced and distributed by streaming services like Netflix, not just because they need something to binge or put on in the background, but because they want their time spent in front of a screen to be productive. Ask any documentary filmmaker or nonfiction content creator why they chose the medium they did, and the answer will probably be that they wanted to make an impact, to inspire, educate, and maybe even initiate some kind of social transformation. Netflix’s Knock Down the House which tracked Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s underdog run and shocking win for Congress is one such example. It’s not just creators that want to change the world, but viewers too.
Let’s take a trip back to the water cooler. The popular media landscape today isn’t just about what spurs casual conversation between bored co-workers looking for something to chat about. Cliffhangers aren’t enough anymore. Today’s audiences are more enlightened than ever, and with their increased awareness as viewers comes a greater demand for social change. The popularity of nonfiction today across platforms and mediums, from podcasts to Prime, truly proves that the content we watch doesn’t just stop at the screen. Nonfiction media can shake up the world unlike anything else.
