Documentary review

Documentary review

Firstly I watched a documentary called suicide and me by Professor Green. This was part of a mental health campaign that was being run by the BBC at the time. He speaks about his own experience of when his dad committed suicide. He goes on to talk about the grief and confusion that follows. He goes on a journey throughout the documentary around the country trying to discover why the number of male suicides has risen in recent years. He first goes back to his grandmother who brought him up to try and find out more about his father before he was born and finds out his dad had struggled to be responsible when he was younger.  Stephen also went to see his fathers best friend who revealed that his father usually held back he's emotions and bottled it up.

After he found out some more about his late father he went to meet a rugby coach called Ben who has twice in the past tried to commit suicide, Ben reveals that playing rugby helped him through his depression and many traumatic events in his life including he's own father committing suicide unexpectedly. It is revealed in this part that traumatic events and depression can catch up with you many years after the events happen. Lastly, Stephen visits a special clinic that is just like a bed and breakfast for people who are feeling suicidal so they can live with people who will support them and convince them that life is worth living.

This documentary was very good because it gave a rare insight in to a topic that is usually not talked about, but the reality is more people commit suicide than people think and it is important that Professor Green made this documentary and also told of his own personal experiences regarding suicide.

The next documentary I watched was Reggie Yates: Life and Death in Chicago, this is about gun crime in America and police brutality. Chicago is one of the worst places in America for gun crime and the deaths of young black men and women because of it. Reggie Yates wants to find out who is responsible for this.

The show starts off with Reggie talking to some black protesters who are protesting against the police and because of shootings of young black people by the police. Many say that this has been ongoing for years and nothing has changed. He then goes to see a women who was pulled over by police whilst in a car with her two children, she shows him a clip of the police pepper spraying them and laughing whilst the children are crying in the back of the car. This is one of many incidents that occurs every year with police and black people on the streets of Chicago.

Following this he visits a memorial day for police officers who had been killed whilst on duty throughout the year, Reggie begins to ask a couple of the officers what it is like to police an area like Chicago before being asked to stop filming until the police had more information about what they were filming, the police then allowed them to carry on shooting the documentary but made them promise not to ask about any issues like police brutality and shootings which is a bit suspect if you ask me. Later Reggie and his crew follow a police car to a near by shooting but have no access to any information about what happened. They later find out that the victim was an 18 year old black man who had died in hospital. Lastly, Reggie attends a funeral of a victim of shooting in Chicago and experiences first hand the emotion and anger from the family and he admits it is heart-breaking to see.

This documentary is also very important as crimes like this are no where near as common in England and it is scary to think that in a place like Chicago these crimes are just an everyday thing, I think Reggie Yates done a good job of looking at the incidents from the perspective of the victims and the police.