Sheridan College: Documentary Analysis - The Game Changers

This report analyzes the documentary 'The Game Changers' (2018), directed by Louise Psihoyos. The report begins with a biographical overview of the director, highlighting his work and achievements, including his Academy Award win for 'The Cove'. It then provides a brief summary of 'The Game Changers', focusing on its premise of challenging conventional protein knowledge through the experiences of athletes and scientists. The analysis includes an examination of the ethical dilemma presented by the film, particularly its perspective on veganism and plant-based diets. The report further explores the visual style of the film, its unconventional approach, and matches it with the narrative. Finally, it presents a review of the film, referencing Biolayne's critique. The report utilizes the provided references, adhering to APA guidelines.

NAME OF THE STUDENT
NAME OF THE COLLEGE
STUDENT ID-
DOCUMENTARY- THE GAME CHANGERS (NETFLIX)
RELEASE YEAR- 2018

1. DIRECTOR’S LIFE
The documentary is directed by Louise Psihoyos, a Greek American documentary film
director, who is famous for his work in photography and contributions to the gallery of
national geographic. He was born in Dubuque, lowa in the year 1957. After getting interested
in photography, Louise interned with the telegraph herald for learning the specs of
photography. He attended the University of Missouri and completed his degree in
photojournalism. Before entering into documentary direction, he was awarded with the
heartest award and worked with various top magazines.
His skills in direction proved to be extraordinarily exceptional as The Cove, a feature length
documentary won an academy award for the best feature documentary at the 82nd Oscar
awards in March 2010. Not only the Oscars, the cove was also nominated for various other
film festivals, including, Toronto film festival, hot docs, Sundance festival and Crested Butte
Film Festival.
Apart from the documentary featuring, Louise also worked for a broadcast, named, Racing
Extinction, which educates people about climate change and its effects on the organisms
present on the earth.
2. BRIEF SUMMARY
The documentary is based on the life of an UFC fighter, who is shocked to find that in a
research made by world renowned athletes and scientists, proved all the preliminary
knowledge about the proteins to be false. Then, the character travels around the world on a
quest for the truth about protein, meat and strength. The movie showcases special ops
soldiers; elite athletes and visionary scientists to change the way people live and eat in the
world.
The cast of the film includes-
Patrick Babouman, world record in holding strongman
Rob Bailey Ma, MSc, Environmental Scientist
Columbus Batiste, Chief Cardiologist
Doutsie Bausch, 8 time National Cycling Champion
Nemai Delgado, Professional bodybuilder
Nathaneil J Dominy, Anthropologist
Walter Willett, Nutritionist
Not only the above mentioned, but also various other world renowned athletes and scientists
were casted in the film.

This documentary will be known to be as an observational expository, as it aims to
observe the world around them and expose various important aspects of the outside world. It
tries to give voice to all the sides of an issue, by icing the audiences a first-hand access a few
more important subjects than the others.
3. ETHICAL DILEMMA
The film presents an ethical note on turning into a vegan from being a meat eater. It
shows an ecological and ethical perspective on turning into a plant based person. The actors
chosen for the documentary are well renowned athletes and scientists, who are shown to be
working on the reality of meat and proteins. It is shown to be changing the perspective of
various people outside by exemplifying them in the movie. The entire documentary lied in its
intense focus on the personal and nutritional aspect of the plant based diet.
The documentary follows a journey of a former MMA fighter, James Wilks on his
journey towards turning into a vegan and using plant based nutrition for maintaining his
fitness. Throughout the film, people are bombarded with references to celebrity appearances
and scientific studies.
The audiences tend to allow the documentary to change their perception of eating meat
for being healthy and fit. The documentary uses the concept of roman gladiators of not eating
meat, superior performance through plant protein, low testosterone in men because of milk
and meat being carcinogenic.
4. VISUAL STYLE OF THE FILM
The film features a plenty of unconventional and real visual style, made up of real images
of the actors present in the movie. The visual style of the film matches to that of a characters
and story. It has been done in a very thoughtful and compelling way. The thought process of
the filmmakers utilised it to capture the visual which can be applied to all the kinds of
narratives and documentaries.
5. REVIEW OF THE FILM
A review provided by Biolayne for the documentary, “the game changers” says that a
film must not just show one side of the story and must also provide enough facts for both the
sides of the story. It also suggests that a real documentary shows pure evidences for stating a
reality. This documentary presented evidence for the side of story which formulates the
opinion of the viewer. It provides lack of information on the side of the meat and protein
consumer and creates negative concept of the same. Hence, the review provides a collection
of fallacies stated in the pasteurisation of the documentary.

REFERENCES
Hiltunen, K. (2019). Recent documentary films about migration: in search of common
humanity. Studies In Documentary Film, 13(2), 141-155. doi:
10.1080/17503280.2019.1595919
The Game Changers Official Film Website | Documentary. (2020). Retrieved 17 April
2020, from https://gamechangersmovie.com/
The Game Changers | Netflix. (2018). Retrieved 17 April 2020, from
https://www.netflix.com/title/81157840