Seeing Is Believing
1956 · 10m · Canada
Directed by Gudrun Parker
Genres: documentary, essay film
Tones: contemplative, provocative
Three newsreels cover the same political candidate's arrival in town in markedly different ways. Their contrasting treatments show how editorial approach can alter the character of an event and mislead viewers.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Everyone acts like newsreels are neutral record-keeping—Parker just demolishes that in ten minutes by showing the same arrival three different ways, and suddenly you're watching propaganda happen in real time, which most people won't even admit exists.
This is essential archival essay work that predates the language we'd later use for it; Parker's decision to let the newsreels speak through their own editorial choices—the framing, the voiceover tone, the what's-left-out—establishes a formal rigor that influenced everything from Marker to contemporary media literacy cinema.
The film's entire argument pivots on the single choice to present the three newsreels sequentially without commentary—that restraint, that trust in the viewer to see the manipulation unfold, is what makes the modest archival footage into something urgent and alive.