History of Documentary
Documentaries began when the first films were invented by the Lumiere Brothers in 1895. The Lumiere's created a camera that could only hold 50 feet of film stock, their films were short unedited clips capturing the life around them, these were called 'Actualities'. Their most famous film simply shows a train pulling into a station. However, audiences were fascinated by these first moving photographs as they were able to see the detail of movement captured by a film camera for the first time.
Documentary, as we know it today, began with Nanook of The North, made by Robert Flaherty in 1922. In fact the word 'documentary' was invented by John Grierson to describe this film. Nanook was the first feature length factual film and the first to use what Grierson described as 'the creative interpretation of reality'. This meant that Flaherty had staged most of the scenes for the camera in order to make the film more dramatic and exciting for the audience.
Grierson went on to head the GPO film unit in England in the 1930's and he became a major exponent of this poetic-realist approach to documentary. Nightmail (1936) began as an international film about the mail train from London to Edinburgh but the filming and editing emphasized the poetic elements of film form: movement, rhythm, light and sound. Critics of Grierson accused him of neglecting the social and political issues in his films in favor of a modernist approach that celebrated machinery more than human beings.
I was this backlash that led to the next major development of documentaries in the 1950's and 1960's. Direct cinema, a movement that began in the United States, aimed to present social and political issues in a direct, unmediated way giving the impression that events are recorded exactly as they happened without the involvement of the film-maker. The development of smaller light film cameras using smaller film stock (16mm as opposed to 35mm film which is used in feature films and in documentaries up to that time) pioneered by news camera men allowed the camera to be held on the shoulder (hand-held) and to film in a more spontaneous manner.
Key names in this movement are D.A. Pennebaker, The Mayles Brothers and Fred Wiseman. The modern social issue documentary such as Supersize Me has origins in Direct Cinema. The film maker usually has a political and/or social agenda and seeks to present the events as 'real' even though they are in full control of the editing process.
At the same time Direct Cinema was being developed in America, a similar movement was happening in France called Cinema Verite ('cinema truth'). Cinema Verite is a minimalist style of film making that conveys the sense that the viewer is given a direct view of what was actually happening behind the camera without the artifice usually incorporated in the film-making process. Cinema Verite favors hand-held camera, natural lighting, location filming and direct sound.
Jean Rouch was an important documentarian working in this style in the 1960's. However Cinema Verite techniques have also been used by drama film-makers such as Ken Loach leading to the term 'drama-documentary' being used to describe films like Cathy Come Home.
The use of Cinema Verite techniques can make a film seem more 'real' and truthful to an audience and in recent time film-makers have used the codes and conventions of the documentary to fool audiences into thinking a program or film is factual when it isn't. This form of film-making is called a mockumentary, because mockumentaries demonstrate how easily the codes and conventions of a documentary can be faked, they can often cause us as viewers to consider why we place so much faith in documentary itself.
Documentaries now feature more camera movement, and can objectively aim to question the verisimilitude behind documentaries themselves. The topics have been targeted at a wider audience and as a result have involved more star vehicles. Reality TV is now a form of documentary that offers a very wide appeal globally, with talent shows such as X Factor having national variations (X Factor USA, Australian X Factor). Another change is the way in which the documentary modes are used. Nanook of the North appeared to use all six of the documentary modes, whereas modern documentaries now seem to only use two of them.
Documentaries on used to be available to watch in cinemas or at film festivals. With the arrival of TV, documentaries have become a lot more present in society. In current time, documentaries are shown in the evening rather than during the day as they are now.
Documentary, as we know it today, began with Nanook of The North, made by Robert Flaherty in 1922. In fact the word 'documentary' was invented by John Grierson to describe this film. Nanook was the first feature length factual film and the first to use what Grierson described as 'the creative interpretation of reality'. This meant that Flaherty had staged most of the scenes for the camera in order to make the film more dramatic and exciting for the audience.
Grierson went on to head the GPO film unit in England in the 1930's and he became a major exponent of this poetic-realist approach to documentary. Nightmail (1936) began as an international film about the mail train from London to Edinburgh but the filming and editing emphasized the poetic elements of film form: movement, rhythm, light and sound. Critics of Grierson accused him of neglecting the social and political issues in his films in favor of a modernist approach that celebrated machinery more than human beings.
I was this backlash that led to the next major development of documentaries in the 1950's and 1960's. Direct cinema, a movement that began in the United States, aimed to present social and political issues in a direct, unmediated way giving the impression that events are recorded exactly as they happened without the involvement of the film-maker. The development of smaller light film cameras using smaller film stock (16mm as opposed to 35mm film which is used in feature films and in documentaries up to that time) pioneered by news camera men allowed the camera to be held on the shoulder (hand-held) and to film in a more spontaneous manner.
At the same time Direct Cinema was being developed in America, a similar movement was happening in France called Cinema Verite ('cinema truth'). Cinema Verite is a minimalist style of film making that conveys the sense that the viewer is given a direct view of what was actually happening behind the camera without the artifice usually incorporated in the film-making process. Cinema Verite favors hand-held camera, natural lighting, location filming and direct sound.Jean Rouch was an important documentarian working in this style in the 1960's. However Cinema Verite techniques have also been used by drama film-makers such as Ken Loach leading to the term 'drama-documentary' being used to describe films like Cathy Come Home.
The use of Cinema Verite techniques can make a film seem more 'real' and truthful to an audience and in recent time film-makers have used the codes and conventions of the documentary to fool audiences into thinking a program or film is factual when it isn't. This form of film-making is called a mockumentary, because mockumentaries demonstrate how easily the codes and conventions of a documentary can be faked, they can often cause us as viewers to consider why we place so much faith in documentary itself.
Documentaries now feature more camera movement, and can objectively aim to question the verisimilitude behind documentaries themselves. The topics have been targeted at a wider audience and as a result have involved more star vehicles. Reality TV is now a form of documentary that offers a very wide appeal globally, with talent shows such as X Factor having national variations (X Factor USA, Australian X Factor). Another change is the way in which the documentary modes are used. Nanook of the North appeared to use all six of the documentary modes, whereas modern documentaries now seem to only use two of them.
Documentaries on used to be available to watch in cinemas or at film festivals. With the arrival of TV, documentaries have become a lot more present in society. In current time, documentaries are shown in the evening rather than during the day as they are now.
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