Feud: Capote vs. the Swans episode 3: Was the documentary real?

On last night’s Feud: Capote vs. the Swans episode 3 on FX, you had a window into Truman Capote’s Black and White Ball. This was an iconic social event in 1966, one that brought together some of the most important people across all of New York City.

For us as viewers, much of this was presented through a documentary shot by the Maysles brothers, one that Truman Capote supposedly wanted them to shoot in order to capture what was going on around the ball. However, here’s the twist: In real life, the brothers never shot anything at the ball. They did film with Capote, but more about his career around the time of In Cold Blood.

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In speaking on this further to The Hollywood Reporter, here is some of what director Gus Van Sant had to say about this change:

“No, they didn’t shoot anything [at the ball] … But they shot this little documentary around the period of In Cold Blood, mostly at his house on Long Island. We also had lots of different black-and-white footage of him to go off of — Truman doing different things, book signings and stuff.”

Why make such a change?

The reason to us feels fairly simple: The show wanted a way in which to paint a picture of what happened at the ball, and this was the easiest way to do it given that the remainder of the series seems to be set in a later time. This is a reminder, after all, that while many major events at the heart of this series are factual, there are liberties being taken here and there for an array of reasons.

Related – Want to learn more about what’s next on Feud: Capote vs. the Swans?

What did you think about the overall events of Feud: Capote vs. the Swans episode 3?

Do you think there was another way to tell the story of the ball? Share right now in the attached comments! Once you do just that, come back — there are more updates coming here soon.

This article was written by Jessica BunBun.