Documentary

documentary

dɒkjʊˈmɛnt(ə)ri/

adjective

1. 1.

   consisting of or based on official documents.

   "documentary evidence of regular payments from the company"

   synonyms:

   recorded, documented, registered, written, chronicled, archived,archive, on record, in writing, on paper;

2. 2.

   using pictures or interviews with people involved in real events to provide a factual report on a particular subject.

   "a documentary programme about Manchester United"

   synonyms:

   factual, non-fictional, real-life, true to life, fact-based "the event will be the subject of a documentary film"

noun

1. 1.

   a film or television or radio programme that provides a factual report on a particular subject.

   synonyms:

   factual programme, factual film;

HISTORY OF DOCUMENTARY:

Documentary began in 1895 when the Lumiere brothers created a camera that could only hold 50 feet of film and their films were unedited clips capturing their life around them. These were called 'Actualities'. Un Train Arrivee (1985) is the Lumiere brothers most famous film which simply shows a train pulling into a station.

The word 'documentary' was created by John Grierson to describe the film 'Nanook of The North (Robert Flaherty, 1922)'. This was the first feature length factual film and Grierson described it as 'the creative interpretation of reality'. Another documentary was made, Nightmail (1936) and began as an informational film about the mail train from London to Edinburgh. Grierson was criticised for neglecting social and political issues in his films. 

So as a result, in the 1950s and 60s, Direct Cinema movement was created. This was aimed to present social and political issues in a direct and unmediated way, to give the effect that they are 'real' and recorded exactly how they happened. The modern social issues documentary, Supersize Me (Morgan Spurlock, 2004) is an example of Direct Cinema.

Whilst this was happening in America, another type of documentary was being developed in France. Cinema Verite (cinema truth) is a minimalist style of filmmaking that conveys the sense that the viewer is given a direct view of what was actually happening in front of the camera. It favours hand-held filming, natural lighting and location filming. 

CASE STUDIES:

In this topic of documentaries I have studied 3 different types of documentary.

1) A Complete History of My Sexual Failures (Chris Waitt, 2008)

This is classed as a 'mockumentary film'.

2) Undefeated (Daniel Lindsay, TJ Martin, 2011)

3) The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, 2012)