Documentaries cannot peddle objective truth. 

It’s impossible to paint a complete portrait of a subject in a feature-length runtime, and whomever shapes the documentary inherently skews what we’re watching, according to what they want to achieve. 

If documentaries feel beholden to as much of the full truth as possible, it behooves them to explicitly address who’s shaping — and according to what ends — within the text of the documentary.

Which is why I appreciate that the Fathom release of Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story starts with a pre-show message from Reeve’s offspring, explaining they’re behind the documentary, and what they hope the audience takes away from it.