If Hollywood attempted to depict the Freedom Riders in movie form, could it be done authentically with a close rendering of real events to the point where it was more effective for audiences that the documentary, or will the documentary always trump anything Hollywood could do, given that it's the "true" story? I dont think this answer has a yes or no answer. I think its all about how you define 'effective' and what you are looking for. A movie has certain strengths that a documentary wouldn't have, but a documentary also has some strengths that a movie wouldn't have. For example a movie would be more captivating than a documentary but a documentary would be more informative and real than the movie. I think it would be interesting if Hollywood took its take on the Freedom Riders. It would be interesting to see how Hollywood would portray the event and it would provide a different viewpoint than a documentary would. Since the movie would be from the individuals during the event it would give a different perspective than a documentary, which looks back on the events, would give. If I had to pick one to be more 'effective' I would say the movie. The reasoning is that I look at the Freedom Riders movement as something that people should know about. People should know how bad race relations were and how courageous the people involved were. While a documentary would provide more information about it, the movie would reach out to more people. Since a movie is more captivating and would be well advertised to a larger population, more people will end up watching it. Also if the movie is well done it should be historically accurate. That being said I still think the documentary would be more informative. The documentary itself was also really well done. I search it online and found out that it got 6 awards which I felt were well deserved. I also found out that the documentary was based partly from the book Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice. I was thinking that I might read that book for my independent reading or maybe that it should offered as an extra credit opportunity.