Documentary Essay

A documentary is a non-fiction film intended to document reality primarily for entertainment, educational or historical purposes, and are an interesting genre in film which tells stories about real-life events, people or places. Documentaries usually use a linear narrative to share with the audience events and experiences in chronological order. Their aim is to raise awareness of a certain topic or to try and change the way people think. Some documentaries are made for the soul purpose of entertaining people, whereas some educate and some even try to be persuasive. John Grierson, a socialist activist, was the first to use the term “documentary” and had a straightforward definition for it: “It is the creative treatment of actuality”. His attitude to life reflected the way he understood documentaries and its function. He thought documentaries should be artistic and it should centre on the social problems and prospects of the modern industrial society. In this essay, I will be going through what the different types of documentaries are, why we have documentaries, the ethical, technical and structural codes of a documentary and how streaming services have affected the way documentaries are made. 

American documentary filmmaker Bill Nichols’ created 6 different types of documentaries as a method of categorising the genre by concepts and themes. The 6 types of documentaries consist of Poetic, Expository, Observational, Participatory, Reflexive and Performative. In this essay, I will only be looking at what Poetic and Performative Documentaries are. A Poetic Documentary is a montage-like film, and its aim is to use a certain tone to influence the audience, for example to make the audience feel happy or sad. It is told in a non-linear structure and contains music to tell the story. Poetic documentaries often rely on colour, tones, sounds and mood to entertain the audience. An example of a Poetic documentary is ‘Living Empty’ (Jahvis Loveday, 2020) which showcases two lads at the beach spear fishing. The short film contains nice shots of the water, the beach and the trees. The film also contains chilled and relaxing music which adds to the calm and happy tone of the film. A Performative Documentary uses a voice-over or an interview to tell the story while using archived footage and cut away shots. Performative Documentaries will emphasise the subject, making it bias. They tend to be emotionally driven and try to show a certain perspective on reality. An example of a performative documentary is ‘Thank God for Basketball’ (2020). The documentary is narrated by the filmmaker himself who also loves Basketball; he tells his journey so far and why he loves the sport. The film uses archive footage from when the player was young and how he fell in love with Basketball, famous basketball players such as Lebron James, Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, and some of his highlights from college basketball games. The film also uses cutaway shots such as of him practicing, a basketball, the court and the net.  

Documentaries are important to the filmmaking industry as it gives the public an interesting and entertaining view of what has happened in the world, but how did documentaries come round? In the late 19th Century, documentaries were as simple as capturing something on film like a person walking or a boat docking. The Lumiere brothers, who are well known for creating the first moving images, filmed a lot of these short and simple documentaries, there first being ‘Leaving the Factory’ (Louis and Auguste Lumiere, 1895). In the early part of the 20th century, the film industry had evolved massively allowing filmmakers to film for longer. Travelogue films, also known as ‘scenics’, dominated the documentary industry during this period. They gave the public the opportunity to view the world through a camera. This was during the period of silent films, so most travelogue films were narrated by someone at the theatre. Between the 1920s and 40s, the golden age of cinema was on the horizon. Huge cinematic productions with sound and special effects were created and the world of film was changed forever. ‘Nanook of the North’ (Robert J. Flaherty, 1922) was produced during this period, it was the first feature length documentary and one of the most famous documentaries. The film follows the lives of Nanook and his family, who are Inuit's living in the Artic Circle. Flaherty spent a year with the family filming there every day lives as they trade, hunt and fish to try and survive. Another documentary the 20’s saw were City Symphony films; these were made in major cities and recorded the lives and activities of the city. The most notable city being Berlin where ‘Symphony of a Great City’ (Walter Ruttmann, 1927) and ‘The Man with a Movie Camera’ (Dziga Vertov, 1929) were made. Over in Germany in the 30s, the Nazis were in control and used documentaries as propaganda. They used them to persuade audiences that the Nazi views were

right, they were also usually made and commissioned by the government. The most famous Nazi propaganda film was ‘Triumph of the Will’ (Leni Riefenstahl, 1935), which starred and was commissioned by the main man himself Adolf Hitler. Propaganda documentaries were then used during the Cold War by the USA and the USSR. Documentaries today are made on a much bigger scale; they are much longer and cover a bigger range of topics. Some filmmakers now make docuseries which are documentaries compacted into multiple 30-60 minute episodes, filmmakers usually do this if the topic they are covering is quite big and needs an episode covering one sub-topic. The most notable docuseries being Netflix’s ‘The Last Dance’ (Jason Hehir, 2020) which follows the story of Michael Jordan and the Bull’s during the 1990s. It’s a 10-episode limited-series where each episode talks about a different topic.  

Documentary filmmakers can use techniques throughout their films to try and tell the story. Framing and Cinematography can be used to symbolise to the audience who someone is and what is happening. In the Rio Ferdinand documentary ‘Being Mum and Dad’ (Matt Smith, 2017), the director uses multiple shots to portray Rio as a lonely, isolated and broken man. Smith uses objects such as a doorway or a banister to take up most of the shot to show Rio’s state of mind. He uses the banister to show that Rio’s wife is unreachable, whereas the use of the doorway shows a blockage in Rio’s mind that is stopping him from grieving properly. Another technique filmmakers can use is lighting. Back lighting is also used in ‘Being Mum and Dad’ to show Rio is isolated from the real world. The use of light makes Rio a silhouette, this means the audience can’t see his face symbolising isolation and loneliness. In the documentary ‘Zero Hour’ (David Hickman, 2004)  the shooters are walking down the hall, and the filmmaker uses back lighting but in a different way to the Rio Ferdinand documentary. The filmmaker uses back lighting to portray the characters as evil and ominous, which is a main lighting technique used in horror and thriller films to portray characters in this certain way.

Streaming services such as Netflix, Disney Plus and Amazon Prime have changed the way how people watch and make documentaries. The selection of documentaries on Netflix has increased massively over the past few years ranging from true crime about Jeffrey Dahmer to beautiful nature narrated by David Attenborough. These documentaries have redefined the definition of documentary and are entertaining for the general public. 2020 was the year of Covid were everything changed for everyone, people couldn’t leave their homes and had to work from home. One thing that did close to the public were cinemas, but people needed entertaining during these difficult time, so people went to streaming services to look for something to watch. In March of 2020, Netflix released the documentary ‘Tiger King’ (Rebecca Chaiklin and Eric Goode, 2020) which was made before Covid and tells the story of Joe Exotic who gets caught in a murder-for-hire plot. By April, 15.6 billion minutes of the show was watched becoming the most watched show on Netflix at that time. A lot of sport games in 2020 were called off due to Covid restrictions, leaving fans with no entertainment. ESPN and Netflix released the highly acclaimed sports docuseries ‘The Last Dance’ (Jason Heir, 2020) which tells the story of Michael Jordan's life and his final season with the Chicago Bulls during the 1997-98 season. The documentary received a lot of praise due to its time of release where no sports were on. The show was announced back in May of 2018 but near to its release it had to be pushed back due to Covid. The editors worked hard on it at their homes and were able to get it released in April of 2020, becoming one of the most popular forms of entertainment in 2020. Due to these two documentaries being so popular, Netflix and other streaming platforms have started making more and more of these types of documentaries. They usually cove big topics that are popular and are spilt up into 6-10 episodes. The most popular documentaries on Netflix at the moment are Drive to Survive, Pepsi: Where’s my Jet?, Arnold, Wham!, Money Shot, The Tinder Swindler, American Murder: The Family Next Door, The Social Dilemma, Conversations with a Killer: The John Gacy Tapes and The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes. Streaming Services producing these documentaries have created these new and different documentaries which has changed the way documentaries are watched and made, forever.

Overall, the documentary genre continues to be a dynamic force in filmmaking, being shaped by societal changes and technological advancements. As we witness a surge in high-quality documentaries on streaming platforms, it’s clear that documentaries will continue to captivate audiences, provoke thought, and contribute to our understanding of the world in new and innovative ways.