HyperNormalisation is an expository documentary made by Adam Curtis for the BBC in 2016. It is an almost 3 hour long, low budget documentary that uses archived clips, eery sounding music and occasional narration to present a dystopian view of society. In this documentary Curtis presents controversial views surrounding the governments and conflicts of the West and Middle-East. He also discusses hyper reality or in a form he calls "HyperNormalisation". In which he is convinced that the majority of society is living ina fake world run by corporations and kept stable by the politicians in the world. Throughout this documentary he looks to make an argument against and expose the scandals of politicians and how they came to trick people into a false view of reality. Throughout the film he discusses interesting subjects regarding powerful world leaders and influential people, such as Donald Trump or Vladimir Putin. I found the section on Putin the most interesting as it is possibly the most clear case of a nation's leader tricking the population into a false sense of reality. Where Putin is largely corrupt and this is no secret, there is no uprising due to people working under Putin funding various political movements, even those that are opposed to Putin. Because when so many opposing voices are heard, to the average person it is hard to know which is true. This leaves the person in a state of confusion so they just choose to ignore it and accept the reality with which they are presented.
While I could talk about the interesting concepts presented in this documentary for hours, the way in which it is presented is just as impressive. The entire film is only clips that Curtis has gathered. These clips come from a range of sources including old news clips, youtube clips showing the modern day reality, gruesome footage from war torn areas, and a mix-match of all sorts of clips that only help to give this dystopian feel. It is easy to see the world in a different way after watching this film, as the version of reality presented in this film is very dark and gruesome in nature. While we can choose to ignore this dystopian version of reality and happily reside in the more happy reality we know, you still can't help seeing how it can be true. The clips used succesfully present the world as if it is a confusing and a dystopian mess. Throughout Curtis uses music from various artists including Burial, which also add to this dystopian, eery effect that this documentary achieves. On top of this he narrates throughout most of the film, often giving arguments or observing arguments, and stating explanations for these arguments.
Overall this is one of my favourite documentaries as it is a real eye-opener and is really effective in shaping your perspective of the world and what reality might be. It covers a lot of content and is a lot to take in in one sitting but it is definitely well worth it. You might be left questioning your own reality or having an existential crisis.
Great choice Jack.
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