Types of Documentaries from Introduction to Documentary by Bill Nichols (2001)

Zaire

The fight was held in ________ (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) on October 30, 1974.

Louis

________ has always been drawn to those whose beliefs seem unusual, confused, or, in some cases, abhorrent.

British television

The Century of the Self is a 2002 ________ documentary series by filmmaker Adam Curtis.

It emphasizes verbal commentary

often using a narrator

From a formal perspective

reflexivity draws our attention to our assumptions and expectations about the documentary form itself

From a political perspective

reflexivity points toward our assumptions and expectations about the world around us

Types of Documentaries from Introduction to Documentary by Bill Nichols (2001)

• The Expository Mode

• The Poetic Mode

• The Observational Mode

• The Participatory Mode

• The Reflexive Mode

• The Performative Mode

The Expository Mode - Voice of God

• Most associated with Television News programming

• This mode is what we identify with documentaries. It emphasizes verbal commentary – often using a narrator. Addresses the spectator directly, with titles or voices that propose a perspective, advance an argument, or recount history

• The expository documentary goes back to the 1920s but remains highly influential today. Most television news and reality TV shows depend heavily on their quite dated conventions, as do almost all science and nature documentaries, biographies, etc.

The Expository Mode Documentary Example

The Century of the Self (2002), Directed by Adam Curtis

The Century of the Self (2002)

• A 2002 British television documentary series by filmmaker Adam Curtis

• It focuses on the work of psychoanalysts Sigmund Freud and Anna Freud, and PR consultant Edward Bernays

The Observational Mode – Window on the World

• Attempt to observe aspects of the historical world as they happen

• Typically have no voice-over commentary, no supplementary music or sound, no inter-titles, no historical re-constructions, no behavior repeated for the camera, and no interviews

• Social actors behave as if no filmmakers were there

The Observational Mode Documentary Example

Hoop Dreams (1994), Directed by Steve James

The Participatory Mode

• The filmmaker appears in the film, making clear that they are also a participant, this gives the audience a sense of what it is like for the filmmaker to be in a given situation and how that situation alters as a result

• The participatory documentary took shape with the realization that filmmakers don’t need to disguise their close relationship with their subjects by telling stories or observing events that seemed to occur as if they were not there

• The difference between observation and participation is that observation camouflaged the actual presence and shaping influence of the filmmaker

The Participatory Mode Documentary Example

Life on the Edge (BBC, 2020), Louis Theroux

Louis Theroux

• Since making his television debut on TV Nation in the mid-90s, journalist and filmmaker Louis Theroux has become synonymous with documentaries involving subcultures and people on the fringes of society

• In the first episode of this career retrospective, Louis looks back at his earliest documentaries and explores how some people’s most fervent beliefs can bring them into conflict with mainstream society

• Louis has always been drawn to those whose beliefs seem unusual, confused, or, in some cases, abhorrent

The Poetic Mode – Subjective Artistic Expression

• Stresses the lyrical, rhythmic and emotional aspects of the real world

• Sacrifices film conventions, for example, continuity editing, and a situated time and space, to explore associations between images, objects, and patterns

The Poetic Mode Documentary Example

San Soleil (1983), Directed by Chris Marker

San Soleil (1983)

• Sans Soleil (Sunless) is a 1983 French documentary directed by Chris Marker

• It's a meditation on the nature of human memory, showing the inability to recall the context and nuances of memory, and how, as a result, the perception of personal and global histories is affected

The Reflexive Mode

• Brings awareness to the process of making a film

• Speaks not only about the subject matter but about the problems and issues of representing it

• From a formal perspective – reflexivity draws our attention to our assumptions and expectations about the documentary form itself

• From a political perspective – reflexivity points toward our assumptions and expectations about the world around us

• Both of these rely on techniques that attempt to shake us and break our engagement with the film so that we are forced to think about filmmaking as a process

• Involves Expository; Voice-of-God narration; Images, archive, reconstruction, graphics

The Reflexive Mode Documentary Example

Stories We Tell (2012), Directed by Sara Polley

Stories We Tell (2012)

• In “Stories We Tell” Sarah Polley interviews her father and brothers and sisters in order to tell the story about finding out the secrets of her own identity that she was the product of her mother's affair

The Performative Mode – Filmmaker as Participant

• The performative mode of the documentary raises questions about what knowledge is. It sets out to demonstrate how the specificities of personal experience provide entry into an understanding of the more general processes at work in society. This is done by stressing the emotional complexity of experience from the perspective of the filmmaker

• Films primarily address the spectator calling for an emotional response from us that acknowledges an understanding of the event, more so than asking us to gain knowledge from it

The Performative Mode Documentary Example

Super Size Me (2000), Directed by Morgan Spurlock

Super Size Me (2000)

• Spurlock's film follows a 30-day period during which he ate only McDonald's food

• The film documents this lifestyle's drastic effect on Spurlock's physical and psychological well-being and explores the fast food industry's corporate influence, including how it encourages poor nutrition for its own profit

Biographical Mode

• The documentary feature Whitney is an intimate, unflinching portrait of Houston and her family that probes beyond familiar tabloid headlines and sheds new light on the spellbinding trajectory of Houston's life

• Using never-before-seen archival footage, exclusive demo recordings, rare performances, audio archives and original interviews with the people who knew her best, Oscar-winning filmmaker Kevin Macdonald unravels the mystery behind "The Voice," who thrilled millions even as she struggled to make peace with her own troubled past

Biographical Mode Documentary Example

Whitney (2018), Director Kevin Macdonald

Historical Mode Documentary Example

When We Were Kings (1996), Director Leon Gast

When We Were Kings (1996)

• The documentary is about the famous ‘’Rumble in the Jungle’’ heavyweight championship match between Muhammed Ali and George Foreman

• The fight was held in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) on October 30, 1974