Extensive scientific research presented in the form of a movie does not yield the kind of respect it would in a textbook, apparently. I just read in Cinematical that a science teacher in a suburban Seattle school was set to show Al Gore’s global warming documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, “when an angry parent’s email put an end to all that.” The parent has succeeded in convincing the school board that the film cannot be shown in the district unless time is also devoted to an opposing view.

I’m all for students being exposed to many ways of looking at and understanding issues, but it seems like the “opposing viewpoint” should be shown only if it is equally well-researched and well-presented. If I was a documentary filmmaker, I would be offended if my hundreds upon hundreds of hours of research was countered with, for instance, a handful of scattered information on some borderline-lunatic’s website. If the opposing view is so valid, where’s the serious documentary or book on it?

In the case of this science teacher finding usable material to counter the information in An Inconvenient Truth, a Washington Post article says the teacher is having some trouble.

“The only thing I have found so far is an article in Newsweek called ‘The Cooling World,’ ” Walls said.

It was written 37 years ago.

Will documentary films always be held in suspicion, as half-truths at best? Is the format itself–film–at the heart of the problem, because many people have a hard time mixing entertainment and fact? And if a scientific documentary like Al Gore’s runs into trouble, what about more social and political documentaries? For instance, Manda Bala, a new documentary about violence and political corruption in Brazil. In a Sunday post on CinemaTech, Scott Kirsner said the film caused his jaw to drop open several times. When the truth presented in a documentary is more shocking than it is scientific, what is the response? I guess what I’m wondering, most of all, is if documentary films are taken as seriously as they deserve.

(Btw, Manda Bala just won the Documentary Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. Here’s some coverage by indieWIRE and in an interview with the director, Jason Kohn.)