This document defines and compares drama-documentary and docu-drama films. Drama-documentaries combine conventional documentary techniques like interviews with narrative reconstructions to engage audiences and deliver a message in an authentic way. Docu-dramas are narrative dramas shot like documentaries, using techniques like shaky cameras and interviews to create a realistic environment. Both rely on verisimilitude, or realistic portrayals, but drama-documentaries are based on real events while docu-dramas use fictional stories. The document analyzes films like The War Game and Touching the Void to illustrate the differences.

1. Drama-Documentary and Docu-
Drama

2. Drama-
Documentary
✤ Dramatic Documentary
✤ Uses conventional documentary
techniques (interviews etc..)
✤ Combines these techniques with
narrative techniques, such as
reconstructions to engage and attract
its audience.
✤ These techniques can help the
documentary deliver its message
✤ Verisimilitude is incredibly important to
make the reconstructions look
authentic.
Docu-
Drama
✤ Documentary Style Drama
✤ Technically a narrative piece of cinema
but shot in the style of a documentary
✤ It uses the same conventions as a
documentary film (shaky camera work,
interviews etc…)
✤ Verisimilitude is key to create a
realistic environment for the film.

3. Docu-Drama vs Drama-
Documentary
The War Game (Peter Watkins, 1965)
✤ Watch the clip of The War Game (00.36.25)
✤ What category does this fit into?
✤ Why do you think this?
Touching the Void (Kevin MacDonald,
2003)
✤ Watch the clip of Touching the Void
✤ What category does it fit into?
✤ Why do you think this?
✤ Uses reconstruction and narrative cinema
devices to engage and attract its audience and
deliver its message.
✤ Consistently uses verisimilitude in the
reconstructions to create an authentic
environment
✤ Uses verisimilitude to create a realistic
atmosphere for the narrative
✤ Based on fictional events
✤ Uses documentary techniques (interviews,
hand held camera etc…)

4. Cathy Come Home

5. Research
✤ Who directed Cathy Come Home and what other films has he
made that you are aware of?
✤ What response did Cathy Come Home receive from its audience
in 1966?
✤ What actions were taken as a result of Cathy Come Home being
broadcast?
✤ Is Cathy Come Home a Docu-Drama or a Drama-Documentary?
(Discuss filmic techniques as well as specific social issues.)

6. Cathy Come Home Screening
✤ Take a look at the screening sheet while you’re watching Cathy Come
Home and answer the following questions:
✤ What techniques are used to represent realism?
✤ What other conventional documentary techniques are used?
✤ How are the audience positioned?
✤ What sequence do you find the most powerful and why?