the 6 types of documentaries

1. Documentary types

2. poetic
• A poetic documentary is a genre of documentary
that use techniques to evoke a certain mood or
emotion rather than to prove a point, these types of
documentaries focus on using They focus on
experiences, images, and showing the audience the
world through a different set of eyes with the goal
of creating feeling rather than a truth

3. expository
• Expository documentaries set up a specific point of
view or argument about a subject and a narrator
often speaks directly to the viewer expository
documentaries are heavily researched and
constructed to inform and persuade. Unlike poetic
documentary or observational documentary modes,
the goal of the expository mode is to present a
strong argument to the audience, convincing them
to believe in or agree with a certain point of view.

4. reflexive documentary
• The reflexive documentary mode focuses on the
relationship between the filmmaker and the
audience, makes the audience aware of the
filmmaking process. Reflexivity is defined by such
devices as looking into the camera, taking
advantage of two-dimensionality of the screen, or
simply making a film about making a film, reflexive
documentaries use self-awareness

5. performative
• Performative documentary films focus on the
filmmakers' involvement with his or her subject,
using his or her personal experience or relationship
with the subject as a jumping-off point for exploring
larger, subjective truths about politics, history, or
groups of people.

6. Observational
• Observational documentary is a type of
documentary filmmaking that aims to record
realistic, everyday life without intrusion. It is also
called cinéma vérité style, direct cinema, or fly-on-
the-wall filmmaking, it is used to give the
documentary realism whether its about nature or
someone's day to day life, observational
documentaries exist to show things how they are

7. participatory
• Participatory documentaries have the filmmaker
take part in the experiment or the topic and take
part of the films narrative that they have chosen to
get the audience to see their point of view on an
argument