What is Documentary?

Documentary is a subset of the non-fiction film genre. There is no one documentary film style, which means that it's not possible to talk about what documentaries "look like." It is also not possible to talk about how long a documentary is supposed to be, how in-depth the research needs to be, nor what narrative style frames the film.





Because of this, it is important for us to watch as many documentaries as we can, so that you all can get a better sense of what is possible in the genre. For today, we will be watching two documentary "shorts." A short is marked by its length (shorter than 30 minutes, frequently shorter than 10). As your documentaries will be "shorts," it is important for you to pay attention to how much material can be covered in a short film.

We will also pay attention to the narrative style of both of these films. The standard narrative style is something we will see in the Royce White documentary below. We have a story framed around an event, and that event is shown in chronological order. A different narrative style is presented in The Archive. In this film, the story is about a man and his passion. There is no beginning, middle, and end; no rising and falling action. These Human Interest narratives are more free form, but just as effective as standard narrative forms.

As we watch these films, think back to our film terms lecture. What differences do you notice in shot style? Music? Editing? What type of narrative style do you see? What is the position of the audience?