Well, I'm not the filmmaker so it isn't right for me to say what he was thinking, but the "point of view" of the documentary as I saw it was to show the importance of his work and what Lomax was dealing with - and attempting to show the impact he had by todays world. Again, I think it was most successful in accomplishing those goals.

No documentary would be successful if it went into all the minutae and tried to cover every aspect.    If you go to an all you can eat buffet and try to sample all 152 items on the menu, you will quickly become sick. To have an enjoyable experience you try to get a taste of the most appealing samples to please your taste buds and walk away with an enjoyable experience. Perhaps you will come back and sample something else another time.   Take painting for example. What was going on around the Mona Lisa?   Would you like to know what she was smiling at? What was happening to her immediate left or right? What kind of shoes was she wearing? If Da Vinci tried to incorporate all those items, the painting would not have been as effective - although we might have learned much more about the model.

A film maker is trying to tell a story. Their canvas is limited and they have to get their points across.   They realize that you cannot do justice to a man's work in a one hour time frame.   The goal is to tell a good story that will hold an audiences attention and give them something to think about.    In the case of the Lomax documentary, the film maker gave us enough information about his background to keep us curious and then told his story about the search for songs and used a few specific locales as examples.

I know that often I will look forward to a documentary or film concerning a book or subject that I have some knowledge about and I will also complain about what the director "missed". That is the "fanboy" in all of us. But I always try to determine what the directors perspective was and what goal they were trying to accomplish. If it is clear, then I judge them on that basis.

Believe me, I do understand that the documentary would not appeal to everyone - and I am not trying to change anyones mind. I am just giving my thoughts about the work of the film maker.