A Mockumentarie

This week in one of my other classes we watched and studied the movie Borat: Cultural Learning's of America Make Benefit Glorious Nations of Kazakhstan. The 2006 documentary stars Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat. In the film, Borat travels from his home town Kazakhstan, to the U.S. to make a documentary about how Americans live. The film has limited actors. He meets people in real life and films real life situations, and these people have no idea that Cohen is acting. These people think he really is Borat from Kazakhstan, and is creating a film to educate himself about America. All the people needed to do was sign a release form, giving permission to be included in his "documentary" film.

One of my favorite scenes is when Borat is trying to learn how to tell Americanized jokes. It's funny to think about how the joke coach really thinks that Borat is that stupid. He is putting on an act, so that the audience laughs.

Borat is classified as a Mocumentarie- a fictional movie presented as if it was a documentary. There was tons of controversy when this film was released. Cohen was looked at as sexist, homophobic and racist. Cohen has been sued multiple times, because he lied to the people that are shown on the film. He was acting, and many didn't appreciate this.

I just think that these Americans shown in the film were embarrassed when it was released, and now they want to defend certain things they said.

If you haven't seen the movie, watch it! Keep in mind that Borat is acting, and the other characters aren't. Check Borat out on Myspace!