Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? - Posted on Behalf of Sam Walhall

Sam Walthall

Cinema Arts Blog

Documentary: Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?

Director: Morgan Spurlock

Year: 2008

In "Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?" Morgan Spurlock travels through the Middle East in a quest to find wanted terrorist, Osama Bin Laden. This documentary is an example of an interactive documentary, and a Director-participant documentary, in which Spurlock adds commentary and speaks to the camera in a direct manner. He combines storytelling strategies such as voice of authority, where Spurlock is not physically in the scene, but voices over to give supporting information to what is being filmed, and talking heads, interviews with the people of the Middle Eastern countries - an interesting example is when two young male students are interviewed about their opinions on the war, with their teachers standing behind the cameras; they falter nervously over their words and immediately take back any replies they try to come up with, glancing constantly to their teachers - and then the cameras are ordered to be turned off. This also proves as an example to the director's adherence to cinema verite: "honesty, intimacy, and above all objectivity." Spurlock's style also comes with goofy jokes - not mockumentary, which fictionally parodies actual documentaries; it is a true documentation of a quest into the Middle East. Rather, it's in his live commentary during the journey, and comedic animations used as transitions and conveying complex information, that the comedic tones come in handy. In some aspects, Morgan's documentary is somewhat avant garde; the combination of artistic conveyance, lighthearted commentary, and documentary-style information (interviews, travel log), along with the director's choice to include his own homelife in the piece in a video diary-esque style, strays from the traditional standards of straight documentary. Overall, the piece did exactly as it was meant to as a documentary - it informed, entertained, and it gave America a different perspective on the conditions in the Middle East, and that part of the world's view of our government.