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History and Evolution of Documentaries

This document provides an overview of documentary films. It defines documentary films as non-fictional motion pictures intended to document reality for purposes such as instruction or maintaining a historical record. Early documentary films lasted just one minute, but they have evolved to be longer and include more categories such as educational and observational films. Social media platforms have helped the growth of documentaries by increasing their distribution and accessibility. The term "documentary" was coined by Scottish filmmaker John Grierson in a 1926 review of a Robert Flaherty film.

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22 views2 pages

History and Evolution of Documentaries

This document provides an overview of documentary films. It defines documentary films as non-fictional motion pictures intended to document reality for purposes such as instruction or maintaining a historical record. Early documentary films lasted just one minute, but they have evolved to be longer and include more categories such as educational and observational films. Social media platforms have helped the growth of documentaries by increasing their distribution and accessibility. The term "documentary" was coined by Scottish filmmaker John Grierson in a 1926 review of a Robert Flaherty film.

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Che Caermare
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Documentary film

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Documentary" redirects here. For other uses, see Documentary


(disambiguation).

A 16 mm spring-wound Bolex "H16" Reflex camera – a popular entry-level camera used in film


schools

A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-


picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction,
education or maintaining a historical record".[1] Bill Nichols has characterized
the documentary in terms of "a filmmaking practice, a cinematic tradition, and
mode of audience reception [that remains] a practice without clear
boundaries".[2]

Early documentary films, originally called "actuality films", lasted one minute
or less. Over time, documentaries have evolved to become longer in length,
and to include more categories. Some examples
are educational, observational and docufiction. Documentaries are
very informative, and are often used within schools as a resource to teach
various principles. Documentary filmmakers have a responsibility to be truthful
to their vision of the world without intentionally misrepresenting a topic.
Social-media platforms (such as YouTube) have provided an avenue for the
growth of the documentary-film genre. These platforms have increased the
distribution area and ease-of-accessibility.

Definition

The cover of Bolesław Matuszewski's 1898 book Une nouvelle source de l'histoire. (A New Source
of History), the first publication about documentary function of cinematography.

Polish writer and filmmaker Bolesław Matuszewski was among those who


identified the mode of documentary film. He wrote two of the earliest texts on
cinema, Une nouvelle source de l'histoire ("A New Source of History") and La
photographie animée ("Animated photography"). Both were published in 1898
in French and were among the earliest written works to consider the historical
and documentary value of the film.[3] Matuszewski is also among the first
filmmakers to propose the creation of a Film Archive to collect and keep safe
visual materials.[4]

The word "documentary" was coined by Scottish documentary filmmaker John


Grierson in his review of Robert Flaherty's film Moana (1926), published in
the New York Sun on 8 February 1926, written by "The Moviegoer" (a pen
name for Grierson).[5]

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