2. John Grierson –
Documentary Pioneer
Becoming fascinated by how cinema has
control over the masses, and has high
values in both
entertainment(,entertainment,
entertainment) and education. He
became agitated at several productions,
such as Nanook in the North, for being
overly poetic, and not focusing enough
on educational purposes. Due to the
media dependency of 1920-30 Britain he
set out to juxtapose education and
entertainment.
3. John Grierson –
Documentary Pioneer
In 1927, Grierson currently
situated in Britain, set himself
the task of uplifting the British
public. Equipped with the belief
that documentary had the
ability to not only inform a
population, but to bring them
together during a time plagued
by the great depression. His
first film, Drifters, 1929,
Showed a group of fisherman ,
venturing across the north sea,
promoting British togetherness.
4. Propaganda (World War 2)
During World War 2, the Nazi party utilized the
media to get its message to the entirety of the
German populace. Media such as: Triumph of the
Will, 1935, was shown across Germany and the
world, to show the ‘morals’ of the Nazi party,
sowing the hard working party and citizens
working together. This film, along with all other
forms of media within Germany at this time was
directly influenced by Hitler.
Grierson, along with many others responded to
this with their own form of propaganda. Grierson
achieved this with the assistance of his Canadian
national film commission.
5. Direct cinema (Cinema Verite)
Around 1950, direct cinema
came into consideration.
Originally a French movement,
direct cinema, or cinema vérité,
moved away from leading
information and staged drama,
but instead attempted to create
‘real’ footage, showing ‘real’
people doing ‘real’ activities.
6. Political Weaponry
Between 1960-70, politicians began using film as a weapon
to tarnish or oppose political agendas. This style of film was
also used to document a change of power, such as in the
early 70’s production ‘Chile: A Special Report’
7. Modern Documentaries
Modern documentaries have become a lot more theatrical in their release, in
an attempt to attract more of an audience. This can be noticed in such films
as: March of the Penguins, 2005 and Inconvenient Truth, 2006.
Most documentaries released recently, in comparison to fictional
productions, have a lot lower budget.
Documentaries are now closely associated with narratives, and often contain
more personal matters, such is the case in Black Is...Black Ain't (1995),
which mix expressive, poetic, and rhetorical elements and stresses
subjectivities rather than historical materials.
Due to funding becoming ‘elusive’ within today’s industry, documentaries are
often being directly funded by broadcasters which enforce their own bias
onto the production.
