The history of documentries
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The first films were invited by the Lumiere brothers in 1895. They created a camera that could only hold 50 feet of film stock and their films were short, unedited clips capturing the life around them. These were called “Actualities”.
“Un Train Arrivee”(1895) - a train pulling into a station. The audience was fascinated by the first moving photographs as they were able to see the detail of movement captured by a film camera for the first time.
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The documentary that we know now started with Nanook of The North, made by Robert Flaherty in 1922. The word “documentary” itself was invented by John Grierson to describe this film. He described the film as “the creative interpretation of reality”.
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Grierson went on to head the GPO film unit in England in the 1930s and he became a major exponent of this poetic-realist approach to documentary. Nightmail (1936) began as an informational film about the mail train from London to Edinburgh but the filming and editing emphasised 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 favour of a modernist approach that celebrated machinery more than human beings.
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1950s and 1960s - a movement “direct Cinema” began in the United States. It aimed to present social and political issues in a direct way. The modern social issue documentary such as Supersize Me has its origins in Direct Cinema. The filmmaker usually wants to present the events as ‘real’ even though they are in full control of the editing process.
In the same time, there was a similar movement that was happening in France. It was called Cinema Verite (‘cinema truth’). It was about a minimalist style of filmmaking. The viewer was given a direct view of what was actually happening in front of the camera. Cinema Verite used hand-held camera, natural lighting, location filming, and direct sound, so it standed as “natural” and “real”.
1960s - Jean Rouch, an important documentarian was working in this minimalist style. It was also used by drama film-makers such as Ken Loach. The term ‘drama-documentary’ started to be used to describe films like Cathy Come Home.
Just like mentioned before, the techniques used in cinema verite can make a film seems more ‘real’ and truthful to an audience. Now, film-makers are using the codes and conventions of the documentary to make the audiences think that what they are watching is based on facts, when actually it isn’t. It is called a mockumentary
Mockumentaries demonstrate that the codes and conventions of documentary can be easily faked. It makes us question our faith in documentary itself.
In the same time, there was a similar movement that was happening in France. It was called Cinema Verite (‘cinema truth’). It was about a minimalist style of filmmaking. The viewer was given a direct view of what was actually happening in front of the camera. Cinema Verite used hand-held camera, natural lighting, location filming, and direct sound, so it standed as “natural” and “real”.
1960s - Jean Rouch, an important documentarian was working in this minimalist style. It was also used by drama film-makers such as Ken Loach. The term ‘drama-documentary’ started to be used to describe films like Cathy Come Home.
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Mockumentaries demonstrate that the codes and conventions of documentary can be easily faked. It makes us question our faith in documentary itself.
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The Oscar winning Documentaries
(https://www.thoughtco.com/oscar-winning-documentaries-1109976)
(https://www.thoughtco.com/oscar-winning-documentaries-1109976)
(https://www.thoughtco.com/oscar-winning-documentaries-1109976)
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http://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/downloads/bfi-genre-and-classification-2016-06-30.pdf
http://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/downloads/bfi-genre-and-classification-2016-06-30.pdf
Those charts show that the documentary is one of the lowest with its box office in comparesment to other gentres, however its releases in comparesment to other genres is significantly higher.
http://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/downloads/bfi-genre-and-classification-2016-06-30.pdf
http://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/downloads/bfi-genre-and-classification-2016-06-30.pdf
Those charts show that the documentary is one of the lowest with its box office in comparesment to other gentres, however its releases in comparesment to other genres is significantly higher.
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