The document discusses the documentary genre. It defines a documentary as documenting actual events using actual footage or reconstruction. While footage aims to be actual, productions still involve direction and construction. A good documentary is about its topic rather than style. It draws on fiction techniques like camera work and editing to give structure. John Grierson first used the term "documentary" in 1926 to describe a film portraying life on a south sea island with "creative treatment of actuality." Key documentary elements include observation, interviews, dramatization, mise-en-scene, and exposition. Common types are fully narrated, fly on the wall, mixed, self-reflexive, docudrama, and docusoap.