Documentary - Analysis of Hate Thy Neighbour
Hate Thy Neighbour.
Hate Thy Neighbour is a documentary series that follow comedian Jamali Maddix as he goes to specific groups whether it be the KKK, the EDL, and pretty much any far-right
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| Jamali Maddix (Image found on google images) |
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| Tommy & Jamali (screenshot from YouTube) |
What is the story told?
What I really like about this documentary is that there is no narration, the most of it is Jamali going to these different places to uncover the truth, but rather than having narration in places it would cut to Jamali doing a stand-up show describing to the audience his thoughts and feelings throughout his time there. I think that this is a really interesting and different way of portraying emotion through the presenter as we normally don't hear what they're thinking at the time because he didn't want to upset the person he was interviewing.
Specifically, in this episode, it starts off with Jamali talking to some of the leaders that organise the marches. I like the way they've started off the documentary as it tells us immediately how this documentary is going to include. We already see how their views are a lot different from what Jamali's are, as they're already assuming that his a Muslim just because of the colour of his skin. This sets the tone for the rest of the documentary as Jamali then meets Tommy for the first time. Tommy was walking around his local town putting up posters from the Karan trying to show people that their religion is bad. Whenever he talks to Tommy you can tell his views are so strong towards hating Muslims and blacks that he does make something up just to try and convince people to join his side. However, this doesn't work out for him as people who he does try to convince seem to be more intelligent than him. I couldn't find the small clip of the segment I wanted to show, but below is the full documentary and if you skip to 20:12 minute you can see that Tommy doesn't actually know what he's talking about.
One of the EDL's (English Defence Leagues) main focus is to stop immigrants coming over to England. This then makes Jamali wonder, what is it like to live in Cali? So he took it upon himself to travel to France just to see some of the conditions the refugees were living in. This showed a different side to the story they were trying to uncover as throughout the story we only saw the side of the EDL, but when we saw the refugees it shows us that not all of them are rapists and murderers. They just want to leave their country as it's not safe for them to live, they're all just looking for a better life to live. By the end of the documentary Jamali confronts Tommy and it all kicks off as Tommy believed that he was slowly getting through to Jamali thinking he was agreeing with everything. This then leads to a big argument involving the police.
How is the camera used in the documentary?
I really liked how the camera was used to capture the story, the majority of the film is filmed using actuality. We follow Jamali as he goes to places like London, Ipswich, Leamington Spa, and Cali. From watching the documentary it looks like it has a multi-camera, this is when there are multiple cameras trying to capture the event from all angles. We can tell this when Jamali is confronting Tommy, the different angles it's shot from helps us see the full picture. It also helps to see everyone's emotions when they're discussing something shocking. I really like this style of documentary making because it means that you will capture everything that's happening, especially for this type of documentary because it's mostly filmed in actuality.
Another style I noticed with this documentary is that they didn't have narration. Instead, we were shown Jamali performing a comedy show, which kept appearing when they wanted to show what Jamali was thinking at the time. I feel like they went around doing it this way because he was following such an extreme group that if he was to say what he was thinking Tommy and the rest of the EDL would've tried staring either a fight or a massive argument. So this way would be a lot safer for Jamali and his crew. However, towards the end of the documentary, Jamali would confront Tommy and he does kick off trying to fight Jamali and the crew thus proving that if he was to say something directly at him it would've been dangerous.
How is sound/music used?
There wasn't anything too special when it came to sound and music, I did notice that for every new place we visit in the documentary the same music plays. This was a good use of music as I knew that when this music played we would be visiting somewhere new. I liked this style of introducing a new place and this could be considered for our own documentary. However, with the Cali scene, we didn't hear this upbeat music because it's such a sad sight seeing all these people flee their country for a better one yet they're living like animals and not seen as humans by the majority of the world. they used some bass during the cutaways to add this sinister makes us the audience feel sad by the conditions they're living in.
How is the documentary edited?
Hate Thy Neighbour I feel has a standard editing technique the only thing I feel really stands out is when they cut from actuality to his standup show. This felt like when the director would jump from inside to outside the perspective because when it cut into the standup we got a better understanding of how Jamalia was feeling at the time, this gave the documentary more depth into what they were trying to uncover. Which made it more exciting to watch as I wanted to know what Jamali was feeling.
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| Few shots before the standup image below (screenshot from YouTube Video) |
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| Jamali at his show (screenshot from the Youtube video) |
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