According to the authors of Film Art, a documentary “claims to present factual information of the world.” However, the objectivity of documentaries is debatable; even though the filmmakers may attempt to be as true as possible to the material they are covering, their perspective on the material still pervades the final product, and it is still possible for documentaries to provide inaccurate information to their audiences.

One example that jumps to mind is Tiger King, a docuseries that skyrocketed in popularity during the COVID pandemic. The Netflix show was watched 34.3 million people over its first ten days of release, and it instantly became a cultural sensation. The series claimed to be a true crime documentary about the feud between the two main subjects, Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin. Even though it received positive reviews and immense popularity, there were still many criticisms about the show, including in its representation of animal welfare and conservation.

One common criticism of the show is its depiction of Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin’s private big cat breeding, as captive breeding of big cats and their reintroduction back into the wild are highly controlled processes that should only take place in accredited zoos. Many argued that the show glamorized Exotic’s behavior while overly demonizing Baskin. For example, the show neglected to emphasize Exotic’s animal cruelty, such as feeding his tigers expired meat from Walmart or the lack of veterinary care provided to his animals. Meanwhile, Baskin’s efforts to advocate for stricter animal trafficking laws in Congress was barely mentioned. Her keeping animals in captivity was also painted as hypocritical; however, the show failed to explain that releasing animals that were born in captivity would do more harm than good, since they were unlikely to survive in the wild. The filmmakers also portray Baskin as guilty of her ex-husband Don Lewis’s disappearance, despite the lack of evidence doing so. When presenting the case of Don’s disappearance, the filmmakers use purposeful editing of testimonies and ominous music that may paint Baskin in an incriminating light. On social media, the documentary led to widespread support for Exotic (with the hashtag #FreeJoeExotic trending on Twitter) while breeding contempt for Baskin, who has been subject to harassment and death threats since the show’s release.

Others have even criticized Tiger King for not being a documentary as the filmmakers claimed it’d be. According to one of the subjects of the show, Doc Antle, directors Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin approached Antle with the proposal that the documentary would be about the conservation of endangered species. But instead, the show turned out more like a television show “produced to create drama” surrounding the feud between Baskin and Exotic. It makes little effort to advocate for animal conservation and the protection of endangered species. Furthermore, the show focuses most of its time on Exotic’s two counts of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire of Baskin, rather than the overwhelming 17 counts of falsifying wildlife records and violating the Endangered Species Act. It frames Exotic as someone to rally behind, rather than a reckless individual who is guilty of exploiting and mistreating his animals, and it suggests that Exotic was wrongfully framed for his murder scheme.

It’s interesting to see that despite documentaries trying to present themselves as truthful, opinions and arguments still make their way into documentaries, as seen in Tiger King. What the filmmakers chose to include and neglect in the final show, as well as how they portrayed it, had a huge impact on how audiences perceived Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin, and by the end of the series, the endangered animals kept in captivity were no longer at the center of focus. The show’s editing attempts to redeem Joe Exotic’s behavior, from the abuse of his partners to the neglect of his animals to his threats against Baskin, by contrasting his problematic behavior with clips of him playing with his tigers or soundbites of his teary calls from prison. The truth of Exotic’s relationships with his animals, his employees and partners, and even Carole Baskin is filtered through the filmmakers’ lens in Tiger King, and relying on the documentary alone may actually lead to a skewed version of the true story in favor of Joe Exotic.