Expository documentary, developed by Bill Nichols, is a classic documentary form that emphasizes verbal commentary, often delivered by a narrator, to expose topics or individuals. This style aims to educate the audience through a structured narrative and a strong authoritative voice, making the imagery subordinate to the voice-over narration. Common subgenres include historical, biographical, and science documentaries, with John Grierson being a key figure in its development.

1. EXPOSITORY
DOCUMENTARY
(VOICE OF GOD)
BY BILL NICHOLS & JOHN GRIERSON

2. WHAT IS EXPOSITORY
DOCUMENTARY?
• Expository documentary is developed by an American
documentary theorist, Bill Nichols.
• It is a classic form of documentary, one of the six main
types.
• It is a documentary that expose a person or a topic.
• It emphasizes verbal commentary – often using a narrator.
• Addresses the spectator directly with titles or voices that
propose a perspective, advance an argument or recount
history.
• It also shows the viewer directly through the
professionally confident voice, usually male, of an unseen
speaker.

3. WHAT IS EXPOSITORY
DOCUMENTARY?
• It is didactic and educational. It has always purposes to
teach or show audience what is going on screen.
• It has direct relationship between images and voice-over.
• A conventional narrative structure.
• Assumes a “right” answer or preferred meaning.
Filmmaker almost always use rich and sonorous male voices to
Narrative. And the voice can be use to create a deeper sense of
intimacy with filmmaker's his or her audience and to express his or
her innermost thoughts and feelings (The personal voice).

4. WHAT IS EXPOSITORY
DOCUMENTARY?
• Expository Documentary is normally an authoritative
commentary which proposes a strong argument and point
of view.
• Additionally; the voiceover may be of an omniscient
(voice-of-god) like position.
• Expository documentary is well known for having a
commentator, talking over the pictures or videos and
explaining the story.
“The voice indicates the way of conveying a perspective or point of view
by giving tangible expression to the creative vision and personality of
the filmmaker (Nichols 2005)”

5. WHAT IS EXPOSITORY
DOCUMENTARY?
• Commentary serves to organize the images and make
sense of them.
• Images become subordinate to the voice over narration.
They serve to illustrate, illuminate or act in counterpoint to
what is being said by author.
• Editing in the expository mode serves to maintain the
continuity of the spoken argument or perspective. (This is
called evidentiary.)
• Emphasizes objectivity and well supported argument.
“The concept of voice is also based on the degree of epistemic authority
incorporated in the documentary (Plantinga 1997: 106).”

6. WHAT ARE THE MAIN
CONVENTIONS?
The main conventions of expository documentaries are:
•A commentator
•Rhetorical questions
•Facts Opinions
•Persuasive Techniques

7. HOW DO THEY APPEAL
TO AN AUDIENCE?
• In an expository documentary the commentator talks
specifically to the audience. They are often biographical,
historical or talk about a certain event.
• They include footage, interviews or pictures exclusive to
the documentary.
“Narration, or voice-over, is used to deliver information, provide the point
of view of an unseen character, or allow an onscreen character to
comment on the action.”(Ascher and Pincus 493)

8. SUBGENRES OF EXPOSITORY
DOCUMENTARY
• Historical
• Biographical
• Health
• Science
• Nature
• Environmental
• Music and more topics.

9. EXPOSITORY DOCUMENTARY
AND JOHN GRIERSON
• Expository documentary is one of the most traditional
modes of documentary filmmaking. When the expository
mode is used it is meant to scientifically and objectively
express facts. The expository mode was first used by
John Grierson in 1927. This mode became the standard
mode for a long time. It was used in nearly all
documentaries until the 1960’s.
Expository Documentaries of Grierson: Drifters (1929), One Family
(1930), Night Mail (1936)

10. EXAMPLES
• Robert Flaherty’s Nanook of the North (1921)
• John Grierson’s Night Mail (1936)
• Frank Capra’s Why We Fight(1944)
• Raul Crilissi’s Sardegna isola misteriosa (1954)
• Risveglio di un’isola (1956)
• Silvio Torchiani’s Sardegna terra di contrasti (1956)
• Marcello Serra’s Sardegna quasi un continente (1961)
• John Berger’s Ways of Seeing (1972)
• Diego Carpitella’s Cinesica culturale: Barbagia (1974)
• An Inconvenient Truth (2006)
• Nurettin Dilek’s Untitled Documentary (2009)
• Wild China – BBC (2011)

11. REFERENCES
• Wreckage upon Wreckage: History, Documentary and the Ruins of Memory by
Paula Rabinowitzhttp://links.jstor.org/sici sici=0018-
2656%28199305%2932%3A2%3C119%3AWUWHDA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-6
• Documentary Film and the Modernist Avant-GardeAuthor(s): Bill
NicholsSource: Critical Inquiry, Vol. 27, No. 4 (Summer, 2001), pp. 580-610
Published by: The University of Chicago
Presshttp://www.jstor.org/stable/1344315
• History, Myth, and Narrative in DocumentaryAuthor(s): Bill NicholsSource: Film
Quarterly, Vol. 41, No. 1 (Autumn, 1987), pp. 9-20 Published by: University of
California Press http://www.jstor.org/stable/1212324
• DOCUMENTARY FILM, OBSERVATIONAL STYLE AND POSTMODERN
ANTHROPOLOGY IN SARDINIA: A VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY BY SILVIO
CARTA http://etheses.bham.ac.uk/3674/1/Carta12PhD.pdf

12. REFERENCES
• http://www.slideshare.net/MissConnell/documentary-mode-theory-bill-nichols
• http://www.slideshare.net/4cmackenzie/expository-documentaries1
• http://www.slideshare.net/crosswaysfederation/modes-of-documentary
• http://metamentaldoc.com/7_History_myth_and_narrative_in_documentary_Bill_Nichols.pdf
• http://www.columbiauniversity.org/itc/film/gaines/documentary_tradition/Nichols_Documentar
Garde.pdf
• http://condor.depaul.edu/dtudor/DOCUMENTARY%20MODES.htm
• http://www.indiejudge.com/film-theory/documentary-film-theory-john-grierson/
• http://flashaddict.wordpress.com/2009/12/09/voice-over-narration-as-an-active-
agent-in-film/
• http://www.reelmarketer.com/2012/11/battle-of-the-sexes-how-to-choose-
between-a-male-or-female-voice/
• http://documentaries.about.com/od/terminology/g/expository.htm

13. VIDEO REFERENCES
•Nanook of the North http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4kOIzMqso0
•Night Mail http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkLoDg7e_ns
•Why We Fight http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm3GsSWKyso
•Ways of Seeing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1GI8mNU5Sg
•Cinesica in Barbagia 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFMWL1JkZpQ
•An Inconvenient Truth http
://putlocker.bz/watch-an-inconvenient-truth-online-free-putlocker.html
•Nurettin Dilek http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z3egRmXwf4
•Wild China http://watchdocumentary.org/watch/wild-china-episode-01-heart-
of-the-dragon-video_3a9158d41.html