A documentary is a film that explores real people and situations through factual information and actual images to bring viewers into new worlds and experiences. While documentaries strive to present facts, it is how the filmmaker weaves those facts into a compelling narrative that defines the genre. Documentaries can preserve history, persuade audiences, analyze topics, express ideas, discuss issues, and explore unfamiliar subjects through various modes like expository, observational, interactive, essayistic, and experimental styles. When watching a documentary, it is important to remember that every element was intentionally included by the filmmaker to focus on realism and that the relationships between filmmaker, subject, and the presentation of realism are key considerations.

2. What is a documentary?
Documentary has evolved continuously from inception, however its purview and
methods stay ambiguous and its limits endlessly enlarging.
‘documentaries explore the mysterious of actual people in actual situations’. A
documentary is a movie saturated in realism. Documentaries are often used to reveal an
unusual, interesting or unknown angle. Topics are limited only by one's imagination.
"Documentaries bring viewers into new worlds (i.e Blue Planet) and experiences
through the presentation of factual information about real people, places, and events,
generally -- but not always -- portrayed through the use of actual images and artefacts.
But factuality alone does not define documentary films; it's what the filmmaker does
with those factual elements, weaving them into an overall narrative that strives to be as
compelling as it is truthful and is often greater than the sum of its parts."
-- Sheila Curran Bernard,

3. What does a documentary do?
0 Preserve
0 Persuades
0 Analyse
0 Express
0 Discuss
0 Explore
0 Intervene
0 Enlighten
0 Entertain
0 Promotes an ideal-ology

4. Documentary modes
0Expository
Frank Loyd Wright (1998, Ken Burns)
Voice of God
Direct presenting of facts
Can include all kinds of evidence

5. 0Observational
Hoop dreams (1994)
Minimal or no narration
Long takes, real time, synch-sound
Rarely/never see filmmaker

6. 0Interactive
Roger and me (1989, Michael Moore)
Filmmakers is present at times (conventional
for Moore)
Filmmaker makes the action happen

7. 0Essayistic
History and memory (1998, Rea Tajiri)
First person address: “I”
Tells stories from a personal point of view

8. 0Experimental
Tarnation (2003, Jonathan Caouette)
Obeys documentary contract
Anything goes

9. When watching a
documentary remember…
0 Everything in a documentary is intentional.
Who/what/when/where/why are all decided by the filmmaker:
camera movements, framing, editing, music etc which focus on
hitting ‘realism’.
0 Relationship between filmmaker and subject
What’s the claim to truth/authenticity?
0 Relationship between documentary and realism?
Is the subject being presented in a way that won’t harm his/her
integrity?
We will keep all this in mind.