View source for Documentary film

{{short description|Nonfictional motion picture}}
{{Redirect|Documentary}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2023}}
{{Journalism sidebar}}
A '''documentary film''' (often described simply as a '''documentary''') is a nonfiction, [[Film|motion picture]] intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a [[Recorded history|historical record]]".<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.oed.com/;jsessionid=D17BEB75B4625B02AC28B5B9C051D98D?authRejection=true&url=%2Fview%2FEntry%2F56332|title= Oxford English Dictionary|website= oed.com|access-date= 25 April 2018|url-status= live|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180425234317/http://www.oed.com/;jsessionid=D17BEB75B4625B02AC28B5B9C051D98D?authRejection=true&url=%2Fview%2FEntry%2F56332|archive-date= 25 April 2018}}</ref> The American [[author]] and [[Media studies|media analyst]] [[Bill Nichols (film critic)|Bill Nichols]] has characterized the documentary in terms of "a [[filmmaking]] practice, a cinematic tradition, and mode of audience reception [that remains] a practice without clear boundaries".<ref>
{{cite book
 | last1 = Nichols
 | first1 = Bill
 | author-link1 = Bill Nichols (film critic)
 | year = 1998
 | chapter = Foreword to the new and expanded edition
 | editor1-last = Grant
 | editor1-first = Barry Keith
 | editor1-link = Barry Keith Grant
 | editor2-last = Sloniowski
 | editor2-first = Jeannette
 | title = Documenting the Documentary: Close Readings of Documentary Film and Video
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ixLCAgAAQBAJ
 | series = Contemporary approaches to film and media series
 | location = Detroit
 | publisher = Wayne State University Press
 | publication-date = 2013
 | page = xiv
 | isbn = 9780814339725
 | access-date = 6 July 2020
| quote = Even after the word 'documentary' began to designate something that looked like a filmmaking practice, a cinematic tradition, and mode of audience reception, it remains, to this day, a practice without clear boundaries.
}}
</ref>

Research into information gathering, as a [[behavior]], and the sharing of [[knowledge]], as a [[concept]], has noted how documentary movies were preceded by the notable practice of [[documentary photography]]. This has involved the use of singular [[Photograph|photographs]] to detail the complex attributes of [[History|historical events]] and continues to a certain degree to this day, with an example being the [[War photography|conflict-related photography]] achieved by popular figures such as [[Mathew Brady]] during the [[American Civil War]]. Documentary movies evolved from the creation of singular images in order to convey particular types of information in depth, using film as a medium.

Early documentary films, originally called "[[actuality film]]s", briefly lasted for one minute or less in most cases. While faithfully depicting true events, these releases possessed no narrative structure per se and were of limited interest. Over time, documentaries have evolved to become longer in length and to include more categories of information. Some examples are explicitly [[Educational film|educational]], while others serve as [[observation]]al works; [[docufiction]] movies notably include aspects of dramatic storytelling that are clearly fictional. Documentaries are [[Informational listening|informative]] at times, and certain types are often used within schools as a resource to teach various [[principle]]s. Documentary filmmakers have a responsibility to be truthful to their vision of the world without intentionally misrepresenting a topic.

[[Social media]] organizations, such as [[Dailymotion]] and [[YouTube]], with many of these [[Social media platform|platforms]] receiving popular interest, have provided an avenue for the growth of documentaries as a particular [[film genre]]. Such platforms have increased the distribution area and ease-of-accessibility given the ability of [[online video sharing]] to spread to multiple audiences at once as well as to work past certain socio-political hurdles such as [[censorship]].

== Definition ==
[[File:Unenouvellesourc00matu 0005.jpg|thumb|The cover of [[Bolesław Matuszewski]]'s 1898 book ''Une nouvelle source de l'histoire (A New Source of History)'', the first publication about documentary function of cinematography]]
[[File:BolexH16.jpg|right|thumb|This [[16 mm film|16 mm]] [[Bolex]] "H16" reflex camera uses [[Clockwork|spring-wound type]] technology and has been an entry-level camera used in multiple [[Film school|film schools]].]]
Polish writer and filmmaker [[Bolesław Matuszewski]] was among those who identified the mode of documentary film. He wrote two of the earliest texts on cinema, ''Une nouvelle source de l'histoire'' ("A New Source of History") and ''La photographie animée'' ("Animated photography"). Both were published in 1898 in French and were among the earliest written works to consider the historical and documentary value of the film.<ref>Scott MacKenzie, Film Manifestos and Global Cinema Cultures: A Critical Anthology, Univ of California Press 2014, {{ISBN|9780520957411}}, p.520</ref> Matuszewski is also among the first filmmakers to propose the creation of a Film Archive to collect and keep safe visual materials.<ref>James Chapman, "Film and History. Theory and History" part "Film as historical source" p.73–75, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, {{ISBN|9781137367327}}</ref>

The word "documentary" was coined by Scottish documentary filmmaker [[John Grierson]] in his review of [[Robert Flaherty]]'s film ''[[Moana (1926 film)|Moana]]'' (1926), published in the ''[[New York Sun (historical)|New York Sun]]'' on 8 February 1926, written by "The Moviegoer" (a pen name for Grierson).<ref name=RFL>[[Ann Curthoys]], [[Marilyn Lake]] [https://books.google.com/books?id=JE6YM8jcRucC&q=john+grierson+documentary+1926&pg=PA151 Connected worlds: history in transnational perspective, Volume 2004] p.151. Australian National University Press</ref><ref>Barry, Iris. "The Documentary Film, Prospect and Retrospect." The Bulletin of the Museum of Modern Art 13:2 (December 1945), 8.</ref>

Grierson's principles of documentary were that cinema's potential for observing life could be exploited in a new art form; that the "original" actor and "original" scene are better guides than their fiction counterparts for interpreting the modern world; and that materials "thus taken from the raw" can be more real than the acted article. In this regard, Grierson's definition of documentary as "creative treatment of actuality"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://wwwmcc.murdoch.edu.au/ReadingRoom/hfilm/MORRIS.html|title=History/Film|website=wwwmcc.murdoch.edu.au|access-date=25 April 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180326133344/https://wwwmcc.murdoch.edu.au/ReadingRoom/hfilm/MORRIS.html|archive-date=26 March 2018}}</ref> has gained some acceptance; however, this position is at variance with Soviet film-maker [[Dziga Vertov]]'s credos of provocation to present "life as it is" (that is, life filmed surreptitiously), and "life caught unawares" (life provoked or surprised by the camera).

The American film critic [[Pare Lorentz]] defines a documentary film as "a factual film which is dramatic."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://parelorentzcenter.net/fdr_film.php|title=Pare Lorentz Film Library – FDR and Film|date=24 July 2011|access-date=25 April 2018|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724002229/http://parelorentzcenter.net/fdr_film.php|archive-date=24 July 2011}}</ref> Others further state that a documentary stands out from the other types of non-fiction films for providing an opinion, and a specific message, along with the facts it presents.<ref>{{Cite journal
 |author      = Larry Ward
 |date        =Fall 2008
 |title       = Introduction
 |journal     = Communication Faculty
 |volume      = 375: Documentary Film & Television
 |series      = Lecture Notes for the [[Bachelor of Arts|BA]] in Radio-TV-Film (RTVF)
 |publisher   = [[California State University, Fullerton]] (College of communications)
 |page        = 4, slide 12
 |url         = http://www.commfaculty.fullerton.edu/lward/375/PDF375/375INTRO.pdf
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20060903000916/http://commfaculty.fullerton.edu/lward/375/PDF375/375INTRO.pdf
 |archive-date = 3 September 2006
}}</ref> Scholar Betsy McLane asserted that documentaries are for filmmakers to convey their views about historical events, people, and places which they find significant.<ref>{{Cite book |last=McLane |first=Betsy A. |url=https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/new-history-of-documentary-film-9781441124579/ |title=A New History of Documentary Film |publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-4411-2457-9 |edition=2nd |location=New York and London |oclc=758646930}}</ref> Therefore, the advantage of documentaries lies in introducing new perspectives which may not be prevalent in traditional media such as written publications and school curricula.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Stoddard |first1=Jeremy D. |last2=Marcus |first2=Alan S. |date=2010 |title=More Than "Showing What Happened": Exploring the Potential of Teaching History with Film |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/375952 |journal=The High School Journal |volume=93 |issue=2 |pages=83–90 |doi=10.1353/hsj.0.0044 |s2cid=145665551 |issn=1534-5157|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Documentary practice is the complex process of creating documentary projects. It refers to what people do with media devices, content, form, and production strategies to address the creative, ethical, and conceptual problems and choices that arise as they make documentaries.

Documentary filmmaking can be used as a form of journalism, advocacy, or personal expression.

== History ==

=== Pre-1900 ===
Early film (pre-1900) was dominated by the novelty of showing an event. Single-shot moments were captured on film, such as a train entering a station, a boat docking, or factory workers leaving work. These short films were called "actuality" films; the term "documentary" was not coined until 1926. Many of the first films, such as those made by [[Auguste and Louis Lumière]], were a minute or less in length, due to technological limitations. Examples can be viewed on YouTube.

Films showing many people (for example, leaving a factory) were often made for commercial reasons: the people being filmed were eager to see, for payment, the film showing them. One notable film clocked in at over an hour and a half, ''[[The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight]]''. Using pioneering film-looping technology, [[Enoch J. Rector]] presented the entirety of a famous 1897 prize-fight on cinema screens across the United States.

In May 1896, [[Bolesław Matuszewski]] recorded on film a few surgical operations in [[Warsaw]] and [[Saint Petersburg]] hospitals. In 1898, French surgeon [[Eugène-Louis Doyen]] invited Matuszewski and [[Clément Maurice]] to record his surgical operations. They started in Paris a series of surgical films sometime before July 1898.<ref>Charles Ford, Robert Hammond: Polish Film: A Twentieth Century History. McFarland, 2005. {{ISBN|9781476608037}}, p.10.</ref> Until 1906, the year of his last film, Doyen recorded more than 60 operations. Doyen said that his first films taught him how to correct professional errors he had been unaware of. For scientific purposes, after 1906, Doyen combined 15 of his films into three compilations, two of which survive, the six-film series ''Extirpation des tumeurs encapsulées'' (1906), and the four-film ''Les Opérations sur la cavité crânienne'' (1911). These and five other of Doyen's films survive.<ref>{{cite journal|title = "Il faut voir le maître": A Recent Restoration of Surgical Films by E.-L. Doyen, 1859–1916|last = Baptista|first = Tiago|journal = Journal of Film Preservation|issue = 70|date = November 2005}}</ref>

[[File:Gheorghe Marinescu - Science films.jpg|thumb|right|Frame from one of [[Gheorghe Marinescu]]'s science films (1899)]]
Between July 1898 and 1901, the Romanian professor [[Gheorghe Marinescu]] made several science films in his [[neurology]] clinic in [[Bucharest]]:<ref name="marin1">[[Mircea Dumitrescu]], ''O privire critică asupra filmului românesc'', [[Brașov]], 2005, {{ISBN|978-973-9153-93-5}}</ref> ''[[Walking Troubles of Organic Hemiplegy]]'' (1898), ''The Walking Troubles of Organic Paraplegies'' (1899), ''A Case of Hysteric Hemiplegy Healed Through Hypnosis'' (1899), ''The Walking Troubles of Progressive Locomotion Ataxy'' (1900), and ''Illnesses of the Muscles'' (1901). All these short films have been preserved. The professor called his works "studies with the help of the cinematograph," and published the results, along with several consecutive frames, in issues of ''La Semaine Médicale'' magazine from Paris, between 1899 and 1902.<ref name="marin2">Rîpeanu, Bujor T. ''Filmul documentar 1897–1948'', Bucharest, 2008, {{ISBN|978-973-7839-40-4}}</ref> In 1924, Auguste Lumière recognized the merits of Marinescu's science films: "I've seen your scientific reports about the usage of the cinematograph in studies of nervous illnesses, when I was still receiving ''La Semaine Médicale'', but back then I had other concerns, which left me no spare time to begin biological studies. I must say I forgot those works and I am thankful to you that you reminded them to me. Unfortunately, not many scientists have followed your way."<ref name="marin3">Ţuţui, Marian, ''[http://www.cncinema.abt.ro/Files/Documents/fls-258.doc A short history of the Romanian films]'' at the Romanian National Cinematographic Center. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080411014620/http://www.cncinema.abt.ro/Files/Documents/fls-258.doc |date=11 April 2008 }}</ref><ref name="marinescupathe">{{Cite web |date=1967 |title=The Works of Gheorghe Marinescu |url=http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=71342 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100525185831/http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=71342 |archive-date=May 25, 2010 |website=British Pathe}}</ref><ref name="marinescuanf">[http://www.cncinema.abt.ro/Files/Movies/fls-271.avi Excerpts of prof. dr. Marinescu's science films]. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150226113120/http://www.cncinema.abt.ro/Files/Movies/fls-271.avi |date=26 February 2015 }}</ref>

=== 1900–1920 ===
[[File:George malins z aeroskopem St Eloi.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|[[Geoffrey Malins]] with an [[aeroscope]] camera during World War I]]
[[Travelogue (films)|Travelogue films]] were very popular in the early part of the 20th century. They were often referred to by distributors as "scenics". Scenics were among the most popular sort of films at the time.<ref>[[Miriam Hansen]], ''Babel and Babylon: Spectatorship in American Silent Film'', 2005.</ref> An important early film which moved beyond the concept of the scenic was ''[[In the Land of the Head Hunters]]'' (1914), which embraced [[primitivism]] and [[exoticism]] in a staged story presented as truthful re-enactments of the life of [[First Nations in Canada|Native Americans]].

Contemplation is a separate area.{{Explain|date=March 2023}} [[Pathé]] was the best-known global manufacturer of such films in the early 20th century. A vivid example is ''[[Moscow Clad in Snow]]'' (1909).

Biographical documentaries appeared during this time, such as the feature ''[[Eminescu-Veronica-Creangă]]'' (1914) on the relationship between the writers [[Mihai Eminescu]], [[Veronica Micle]] and [[Ion Creangă]] (all deceased at the time of the production), released by the [[Bucharest]] chapter of [[Pathé]].

Early color motion picture processes such as [[Kinemacolor]] (known for the feature ''[[With Our King and Queen Through India]]'' (1912)) and [[Prizma]] Color (known for ''Everywhere With Prizma'' (1919) and the five-reel feature ''Bali the Unknown'' (1921)) used travelogues to promote the new color processes. In contrast, [[Technicolor]] concentrated primarily on getting their process adopted by Hollywood studios for fiction feature films.

Also during this period, [[Frank Hurley]]'s feature documentary film, ''South'' (1919) about the [[Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition]] was released. The film documented the failed Antarctic expedition led by [[Ernest Shackleton]] in 1914.

=== 1920s ===

==== Romanticism ====
[[File:Nanook of the north.jpg|thumb|''[[Nanook of the North]]'' poster]]
With [[Robert J. Flaherty]]'s ''[[Nanook of the North]]'' in 1922, documentary film embraced [[romanticism]]. Flaherty filmed a number of heavily staged romantic documentary films during this time period, often showing how his subjects would have lived 100 years earlier and not how they lived right then. For instance, in ''Nanook of the North'', Flaherty did not allow his subjects to shoot a walrus with a nearby shotgun, but had them use a harpoon instead. Some of Flaherty's staging, such as building a roofless [[igloo]] for interior shots, was done to accommodate the filming technology of the time.

[[Paramount Pictures]] tried to repeat the success of Flaherty's ''Nanook'' and ''Moana'' with two romanticized documentaries, ''[[Grass (1925 film)|Grass]]'' (1925) and ''[[Chang (film)|Chang]]'' (1927), both directed by [[Merian C. Cooper]] and [[Ernest Schoedsack]].

==== City symphony ====

{{Main|City symphony}}
The "''[[city symphony]]''" sub [[film genre]] consisted of [[avant-garde films]] during the 1920s and 1930s. These films were particularly influenced by [[modern art]], namely [[Cubism]], [[Constructivism (art)|Constructivism]], and [[Impressionism]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title = A History of Experimental Film and Video|last = Rees|first = A.L.|publisher = Palgrave Macmillan|year = 2011|isbn = 978-1-84457-436-0|edition = 2nd}}</ref> According to [[art historian]] and author [[Scott MacDonald (media scholar)|Scott MacDonald]],<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Avant-Doc: Eight Intersections.|journal=Film Quarterly|volume=64|issue=2|pages=50–57|last=MacDonald|first=Scott|author-link=Scott MacDonald (media scholar)|date=2010|language=en|jstor=10.1525/fq.2010.64.2.50|doi=10.1525/fq.2010.64.2.50}}</ref> city symphony films can be described as, "An intersection between documentary and avant-garde film: an ''avant-doc''"; however, A.L. Rees suggests regarding them as avant-garde films.<ref name=":0" />

Early titles produced within this genre include: ''[[Manhatta]]'' (New York; dir. [[Paul Strand]], 1921); ''[[Rien que les heures]]/Nothing But The Hours'' ([[French films|France]]; dir. [[Alberto Cavalcanti]], 1926); ''Twenty Four Dollar Island'' (dir. [[Robert J. Flaherty]], 1927); ''Moscow'' (dir. [[Mikhail Kaufman]], 1927); ''[[Études sur Paris]]'' (dir. [[André Sauvage]], 1928); ''[[De brug|The Bridge]]'' (1928) and ''[[Rain (1929 film)|Rain]]'' (1929), both by [[Joris Ivens]]; ''[[São Paulo, Sinfonia da Metrópole]]'' (dir. [[Adalberto Kemeny]], 1929), ''[[Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis]]'' (dir. [[Walter Ruttmann]], 1927); ''[[Man with a Movie Camera]]'' (dir. [[Dziga Vertov]], 1929); ''[[Douro, Faina Fluvial]]'' (dir. [[Manoel de Oliveira]], 1931); and ''[[Rhapsody in Two Languages]]'' (dir. [[Gordon Sparling]], 1934).

A city symphony film, as the name suggests, is most often based around a major [[metropolis|metropolitan city]] area and seeks to capture the life, events and activities of the city. It can use [[Abstract expressionism|abstract]] cinematography (Walter Ruttman's ''Berlin'') or may use [[Soviet montage theory]] (Dziga Vertov's, ''Man with a Movie Camera'').  Most importantly, a city symphony film is a form of [[cinepoetry]], shot and edited in the style of a "[[symphony]]".

[[File:Mikhail kaufman on train.jpg|thumb|In this shot from ''[[Man with a Movie Camera]]'', [[Mikhail Kaufman]] acts as a cameraman risking his life in search of the best shot.]]

The European continental tradition (''See:'' [[Realism (theatre)|Realism]]) focused on humans within human-made environments, and included the so-called city symphony films such as Walter Ruttmann's, ''Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis'' (of which [[John Grierson|Grierson]] noted in an article<ref>Grierson, John. 'First Principles of Documentary', in Kevin Macdonald & Mark Cousins (eds.) Imagining Reality: The Faber Book of Documentary. London: Faber and Faber, 1996</ref> that ''Berlin,'' represented what a documentary should not be); Alberto Cavalcanti's, ''Rien que les heures;'' and Dziga Vertov's ''Man with a Movie Camera''. These films tend to feature people as products of their environment, and lean towards the avant-garde.

==== ''Kino-Pravda'' ====
[[Dziga Vertov]] was central to the Soviet ''[[Kino-Pravda]]'' (literally, "cinematic truth") newsreel series of the 1920s. Vertov believed the camera{{snd}}with its varied lenses, shot-counter shot editing, time-lapse, ability to slow motion, stop motion and fast-motion{{snd}}could render reality more accurately than the human eye, and created a film philosophy from it.

==== Newsreel tradition ====
The [[newsreel]] tradition is important in documentary film. Newsreels at this time were sometimes staged but were usually re-enactments of events that had already happened, not attempts to steer events as they were in the process of happening. For instance, much of the battle footage from the early 20th century was staged; the cameramen would usually arrive on site after a major battle and re-enact scenes to film them.

=== 1930s–1940s ===
The propagandist tradition consists of films made with the explicit purpose of persuading an audience of a point. One of the most celebrated and controversial [[propaganda film]]s is [[Leni Riefenstahl]]'s film ''[[Triumph of the Will]]'' (1935), which chronicled the 1934 [[Nuremberg Rally|Nazi Party Congress]] and was commissioned by [[Adolf Hitler]]. Leftist filmmakers [[Joris Ivens]] and [[Henri Storck]] directed ''[[Misère au Borinage|Borinage]]'' (1931) about the Belgian coal mining region. [[Luis Buñuel]] directed a "[[surrealism|surrealist]]" documentary ''[[Land Without Bread|Las Hurdes]]'' (1933).

[[Pare Lorentz]]'s ''[[The Plow That Broke the Plains]]'' (1936) and ''[[The River (1938 film)|The River]]'' (1938) and [[Willard Van Dyke]]'s ''[[The City (1939 film)|The City]]'' (1939) are notable [[New Deal]] productions, each presenting complex combinations of social and ecological awareness, government propaganda, and leftist viewpoints. [[Frank Capra]]'s ''[[Why We Fight]]'' (1942–1944) series was a newsreel series in the United States, commissioned by the government to convince the U.S. public that it was time to go to war. [[Constance Bennett]] and her husband [[Henri de la Falaise]] produced two feature-length documentaries, ''[[Legong: Dance of the Virgins]]'' (1935) filmed in [[Bali]], and ''Kilou the Killer Tiger'' (1936) filmed in [[Indochina]].

In Canada, the [[National Film Board of Canada|Film Board]], set up by John Grierson, was set up for the same propaganda reasons. It also created newsreels that were seen by their national governments as legitimate counter-propaganda to the psychological warfare of [[Nazi]] Germany orchestrated by [[Joseph Goebbels]].

[[File:Basil Wright, Joris Ivens, Elmar Klos i Jerzy Toeplitz - Film nr 55-56 - 1948-12-23.JPG|thumb|Conference of "World Union of documentary films" in 1948 Warsaw featured famous directors of the era: [[Basil Wright]] (on the left), [[Elmar Klos]], [[Joris Ivens]] (2nd from the right), and [[Jerzy Toeplitz]].]]
In Britain, a number of different filmmakers came together under John Grierson. They became known as the [[Documentary Film Movement]]. Grierson, [[Alberto Cavalcanti]], [[Harry Watt (director)|Harry Watt]], [[Basil Wright]], and [[Humphrey Jennings]] amongst others succeeded in blending propaganda, information, and education with a more poetic aesthetic approach to documentary. Examples of their work include ''Drifters'' (John Grierson), ''[[Song of Ceylon]]'' (Basil Wright), ''[[Fires Were Started]]'', and ''[[A Diary for Timothy]]'' (Humphrey Jennings). Their work involved poets such as [[W. H. Auden]], composers such as [[Benjamin Britten]], and writers such as [[J. B. Priestley]]. Among the best known films of the movement are ''[[Night Mail]]'' and ''[[Coal Face]]''.

''Calling Mr. Smith'' (1943) is an anti-Nazi color film<ref>{{cite web|url=https://lux.org.uk/work/calling-mr-smith1|title=Calling Mr. Smith – LUX|website=lux.org.uk|access-date=25 April 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180425234317/https://lux.org.uk/work/calling-mr-smith1|archive-date=25 April 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.centrepompidou.fr/cpv/resource/cAXbMp/rqGRLe9|title=Calling Mr Smith – Centre Pompidou|website=centrepompidou.fr|access-date=25 April 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180131024033/https://www.centrepompidou.fr/cpv/resource/cAXbMp/rqGRLe9|archive-date=31 January 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://artincinema.com/franciszka-and-stefan-themerson-calling-mr-smith-1943/|title=Franciszka and Stefan Themerson: Calling Mr. Smith (1943) – artincinema|date=21 June 2015|website=artincinema.com|access-date=25 April 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180131024247/http://artincinema.com/franciszka-and-stefan-themerson-calling-mr-smith-1943/|archive-date=31 January 2018}}</ref> created by [[Stefan Themerson]] which is both a documentary and an avant-garde film against war. It was one of the first anti-Nazi films in history.{{Citation needed|date=March 2023}}

=== 1950s–1970s ===
[[File:Lennart Meri kodus oma töökabinetis 02.jpg|thumb|[[Lennart Meri]] (1929–2006), the second [[President of the Republic of Estonia]], directed documentaries several years before his presidency. His film ''[[The Winds of the Milky Way]]'' won a silver medal at the [[New York Film Festival]] in 1977.<ref>{{cite news| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/07/world/estonia-s-president-un-soviet-and-unconventional.html| title = Estonia's President: Un-Soviet and Unconventional – The New York Times | newspaper = The New York Times| date = 7 April 2001| last1 = McNeil | first1 = Donald G. Jr.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url = https://news.err.ee/117821/ten-years-since-the-passing-of-estonia-s-second-president-lennart-meri | title = Ten years since the passing of Estonia's second president, Lennart Meri – ERR| date = 14 March 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.baltictimes.com/news/articles/14876/| title = 'True European' Lennart Meri passes away |work = The Baltic Times|date = 15 March 2006}}</ref>]]

==== Cinéma-vérité ====
[[Cinéma vérité]] (or the closely related [[Direct Cinema|direct cinema]]) was dependent on some technical advances to exist: light, quiet and reliable cameras, and portable sync sound.

Cinéma vérité and similar documentary traditions can thus be seen, in a broader perspective, as a reaction against studio-based film production constraints. Shooting on location, with smaller crews, would also happen in the [[French New Wave]], the filmmakers taking advantage of advances in technology allowing smaller, handheld cameras and synchronized sound to film events on location as they unfolded.

Although the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, there are important differences between cinéma vérité ([[Jean Rouch]]) and the North American "[[Direct Cinema|direct cinema]]", pioneered by, among others, Canadians [[Michel Brault]], [[Pierre Perrault]] and [[Allan King]],<ref>{{Cite news |last=Pevere |first=Geoff |date=27 April 2007 |title=Celebrating Allan King's video-era vérité |url=https://www.thestar.com/news/2007/04/27/celebrating_allan_kings_videoera_veacuteriteacute.html |access-date=21 February 2022 |work=The Toronto Star |language=en-CA |issn=0319-0781}}</ref> and Americans [[Robert Drew]], [[Richard Leacock]], [[Frederick Wiseman]] and [[Albert and David Maysles]].

The directors of the movement take different viewpoints on their degree of involvement with their subjects. Kopple and Pennebaker, for instance, choose non-involvement (or at least no overt involvement), and Perrault, Rouch, Koenig, and Kroitor favor direct involvement or even provocation when they deem it necessary.

The films ''[[Chronicle of a Summer]]'' ([[Jean Rouch]]), ''[[Dont Look Back]]'' ([[D. A. Pennebaker]]), ''[[Grey Gardens]]'' ([[Albert and David Maysles]]), ''[[Titicut Follies]]'' ([[Frederick Wiseman]]), ''[[Primary (film)|Primary]]'' and ''[[Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment]]'' (both produced by [[Robert Drew]]), ''[[Harlan County, USA]]'' (directed by [[Barbara Kopple]]), ''[[Lonely Boy (film)|Lonely Boy]]'' ([[Wolf Koenig]] and [[Roman Kroitor]]) are all frequently deemed [[cinéma vérité]] films.

The fundamentals of the style include following a person during a crisis with a moving, often handheld, camera to capture more personal reactions. There are no sit-down interviews, and the [[shooting ratio]] (the amount of film shot to the finished product) is very high, often reaching 80 to one. From there, editors find and sculpt the work into a film. The editors of the movement{{snd}}such as [[Werner Nold]], [[Charlotte Zwerin]], [[Muffie Meyer]], [[Susan Froemke]], and [[Ellen Hovde]]{{snd}}are often overlooked, but their input to the films was so vital that they were often given co-director credits.

Famous cinéma vérité/direct cinema films include ''[[The Snowshoers]] (Les Raquetteurs)'',<ref>{{cite web|url = http://onf-nfb.gc.ca/en/our-collection/?idfilm=54008 |title = Les raquetteurs |website =National Film Board of Canada|date = 15 August 2017}}</ref> ''Showman'', ''[[Salesman (1969 film)|Salesman]]'', ''Near Death'', and ''The Children Were Watching''.

==== Political weapons ====
In the 1960s and 1970s, documentary film was often regarded as a political weapon against [[neocolonialism]] and [[capitalism]] in general, especially in Latin America, but also in a changing society. {{Lang|es|La Hora de los hornos}} (''[[The Hour of the Furnaces]]'', from 1968), directed by [[Octavio Getino]] and [[Fernando Solanas]], influenced a whole generation of filmmakers. Among the many political documentaries produced in the early 1970s was "Chile: A Special Report", public television's first in-depth expository look at the September 1973 overthrow of the [[Salvador Allende]] government in Chile by military leaders under [[Augusto Pinochet]], produced by documentarians Ari Martinez and José Garcia.

A June 2020 article in ''[[The New York Times]]'' reviewed the political documentary ''And She Could Be Next'', directed by Grace Lee and Marjan Safinia. The ''Times'' described the documentary not only as focusing on women in politics, but more specifically on women of color, their communities, and the significant changes they have wrought upon America.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/28/arts/television/and-she-could-be-next-pbs.html|title=In 'And She Could Be Next,' Women of Color Take on Politics|access-date=28 June 2020|website=The New York Times|date=28 June 2020|last1=Phillips|first1=Maya}}</ref>

=== Modern documentaries ===
Box office analysts have noted that the documentary film genre has become increasingly successful in theatrical release with films such as ''[[Fahrenheit 9/11]]'', ''[[Super Size Me]]'', ''[[Food, Inc.]]'', ''[[Earth (2009 film)|Earth]]'', ''[[March of the Penguins]]'', and ''[[An Inconvenient Truth]]'' among the most prominent examples. Compared to dramatic narrative films, documentaries typically have far lower budgets which makes them attractive to film companies because even a limited theatrical release can be highly profitable.

The nature of documentary films has expanded in the past 30 years from the cinéma vérité style introduced in the 1960s in which the use of portable camera and sound equipment allowed an intimate relationship between filmmaker and subject. The line blurs between documentary and narrative and some works are very personal, such as [[Marlon Riggs]]'s ''Tongues Untied'' (1989) and ''Black Is...Black Ain't'' (1995), which mix expressive, poetic, and rhetorical elements and stresses subjectivities rather than historical materials.<ref>Struggles for Representation African American Documentary Film and Video, edited by Phyllis R. Klotman and Janet K. Cutler,</ref>

Historical documentaries, such as the landmark 14-hour ''[[Eyes on the Prize]]: America's Civil Rights Years'' (1986{{snd}}Part 1 and 1989{{snd}}Part 2) by Henry Hampton, ''[[4 Little Girls]]'' (1997) by [[Spike Lee]], ''[[The Civil War (TV series)|The Civil War]]'' by [[Ken Burns]], and UNESCO-awarded independent film on slavery ''[[500 Years Later]]'', express not only a distinctive voice but also a perspective and point of views. Some films such as ''[[The Thin Blue Line (1988 film)|The Thin Blue Line]]'' by [[Errol Morris]] incorporate stylized re-enactments, and [[Michael Moore]]'s ''[[Roger & Me]]'' place far more interpretive control with the director. The commercial success of these documentaries may derive from this narrative shift in the documentary form, leading some critics to question whether such films can truly be called documentaries; critics sometimes refer to these works as "[[mondo films]]" or "docu-ganda."<ref name="csm">{{cite news
 |first       = Daniel B.
 |last        = Wood
 |url         = https://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0602/p01s02-ussc.html
 |title       = In 'docu-ganda' films, balance is not the objective
 |newspaper   =[[The Christian Science Monitor]]
 |date        = 2 June 2006
|access-date  = 6 June 2006
|url-status     = live
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20060612211916/http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0602/p01s02-ussc.html
 |archive-date = 12 June 2006
}}</ref> However, directorial manipulation of documentary subjects has been noted since the work of Flaherty, and may be endemic to the form due to problematic ontological foundations.

Documentary filmmakers are increasingly using social impact campaigns with their films.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://variety.com/2015/biz/news/afi-docs-fueling-social-change-1201524000/|title=AFI Docs: Filmmakers Get Savvier About Fueling Social Change|last=Johnson|first=Ted|date=19 June 2015|website=Variety|language=en-US|access-date=23 June 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160604032728/http://variety.com/2015/biz/news/afi-docs-fueling-social-change-1201524000/|archive-date=4 June 2016}}</ref> Social impact campaigns seek to leverage media projects by converting public awareness of social issues and causes into engagement and action, largely by offering the audience a way to get involved.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.azuremedia.org/azuremedia.org/social_impact_campaigns.html|title=social impact campaigns|website=Azure Media |access-date=23 June 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160331001043/http://www.azuremedia.org/azuremedia.org/social_impact_campaigns.html|archive-date=31 March 2016}}</ref> Examples of such documentaries include ''[[Kony 2012]]'', ''[[Salam Neighbor]], [[Gasland]]'', ''[[Living on One Dollar]]'', and ''[[Girl Rising]]''.

Although documentaries are financially more viable with the increasing popularity of the genre and the advent of the DVD, funding for documentary film production remains elusive. Within the past decade, the largest exhibition opportunities have emerged from within the broadcast market, making filmmakers beholden to the tastes and influences of the broadcasters who have become their largest funding source.<ref>{{cite web |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070519040840/http://www.indiewire.com/ots/fes_01Sund_010208_Docs.html |archive-date=May 19, 2007 |url=http://www.indiewire.com/ots/fes_01Sund_010208_Docs.html |website=IndieWire |title=Festivals: Post-Sundance 2001; Docs Still Face Financing and Distribution Challenges |date=8 February 2001 |first1=Sarah |last1=Keenlyside }}</ref>

Modern documentaries have some overlap with television forms, with the development of "reality television" that occasionally verges on the documentary but more often veers to the fictional or staged. The "making-of" documentary shows how a movie or a [[video game|computer game]] was produced. Usually made for promotional purposes, it is closer to an advertisement than a classic documentary.

Modern lightweight digital video cameras and computer-based editing have greatly aided documentary makers, as has the dramatic drop in equipment prices. The first film to take full advantage of this change was [[Martin Kunert]] and [[Eric Manes]]' ''[[Voices of Iraq]]'', where 150 DV cameras were sent to Iraq during the war and passed out to Iraqis to record themselves.

==== Documentaries without words ====
Films in the documentary form without words have been made. ''[[Listen to Britain]]'', directed by Humphrey Jennings and Stuart McAllister in 1942, is a wordless meditation on wartime Britain. From 1982, the [[Qatsi trilogy]] and the similar ''[[Baraka (film)|Baraka]]'' could be described as visual tone poems, with music related to the images, but no spoken content. ''[[Koyaanisqatsi]]'' (part of the [[Qatsi trilogy]]) consists primarily of [[slow motion]] and [[time-lapse photography]] of cities and many natural landscapes across the United States. ''Baraka'' tries to capture the great pulse of humanity as it flocks and swarms in daily activity and religious ceremonies.

''[[Bodysong]]'' was made in 2003 and won a British Independent Film Award for "Best British Documentary."

The 2004 film ''[[Genesis (2004 film)|Genesis]]'' shows animal and plant life in states of expansion, decay, sex, and death, with some, but little, narration.

==== Narration styles ====
; Voice-over narrator
The traditional style for [[Voice-over|narration]] is to have a dedicated narrator read a script which is dubbed onto the audio track. The narrator never appears on camera and may not necessarily have knowledge of the subject matter or involvement in the writing of the script.
; Silent narration
This style of narration uses [[intertitle|title screens]] to visually narrate the documentary. The screens are held for about 5–10 seconds to allow adequate time for the viewer to read them. They are similar to the ones shown at the end of movies based on true stories, but they are shown throughout, typically between scenes.
; Hosted narrator
In this style, there is a host who appears on camera, conducts interviews, and who also does voice-overs.

== Other forms ==

=== Hybrid documentary ===
The release of ''[[The Thin Blue Line (1988 film)|The Thin Blue Line]]'' (1988) directed by [[Errol Morris]] introduced possibilities for emerging forms of the hybrid documentary. Indeed, it was disqualified for an Academy Award because of the stylized recreations. Traditional documentary filmmaking typically removes signs of fictionalization to distinguish itself from fictional film genres. Audiences have recently become more distrustful of the media's traditional fact production, making them more receptive to experimental ways of telling facts. The hybrid documentary implements truth games to challenge traditional fact production. Although it is fact-based, the hybrid documentary is not explicit about what should be understood, creating an open dialogue between subject and audience.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://11polaroids.com/2013/07/02/act-normal-hybrid-tendencies-in-documentary-film/ |website=11Polaroids |title=Act normal: hybrid tendencies in documentary film|last=Moody|first=Luke|date=2 July 2013|language=en|access-date=14 April 2020}}</ref> [[Clio Barnard]]'s ''The Arbor'' (2010), [[Joshua Oppenheimer]]'s ''[[The Act of Killing]]'' (2012), [[Mads Brügger]]'s [[The Ambassador (2011 film)|''The Ambassador'']], and [[Alma Har'el]]'s [[Bombay Beach (film)|''Bombay Beach'']] (2011) are a few notable examples.<ref name=":1" />

=== Docufiction ===
[[Docufiction]] is a [[wikt:hybrid|hybrid]] genre from two basic ones, [[fictional film|fiction film]] and documentary, practiced since the first documentary films were made.

=== Fake-fiction ===
{{See also|Pseudo-documentary#Film}}
Fake-fiction is a genre which deliberately presents real, unscripted events in the form of a fiction film, making them appear as staged. The concept was introduced<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/feb/11/where-is-rocky-ii-ed-ruscha-mojave-desert-film-pierre-bismuth|title=Where is Rocky II? The 10-year desert hunt for Ed Ruscha's missing boulder|last=Campion|first=Chris|date=11 February 2015|newspaper=The Guardian|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077|access-date=22 October 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161022225712/https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/feb/11/where-is-rocky-ii-ed-ruscha-mojave-desert-film-pierre-bismuth|archive-date=22 October 2016}}</ref> by [[Pierre Bismuth]] to describe his 2016 film ''Where is Rocky II?''

=== DVD documentary ===
A DVD documentary is a documentary film of indeterminate length that has been produced with the sole intent of releasing it for direct sale to the public on DVD, which is different from a documentary being made and released first on television or on a cinema screen (a.k.a. [[Film release|theatrical release]]) and subsequently on DVD for public consumption.

This form of documentary release is becoming more popular and accepted as costs and difficulty with finding TV or theatrical release slots increases. It is also commonly used for more "specialist" documentaries, which might not have general interest to a wider TV audience. Examples are military, cultural arts, transport, sports, animals, etc.

=== Compilation films ===
Compilation films were pioneered in 1927 by [[Esfir Shub|Esfir Schub]] with ''The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty''. More recent examples include ''[[Point of Order (film)|Point of Order!]]'' (1964), directed by [[Emile de Antonio]] about the McCarthy hearings. Similarly, ''[[The Last Cigarette]]'' combines the testimony of various tobacco company executives before the [[United States Congress|U.S. Congress]] with archival propaganda extolling the virtues of smoking.

Poetic documentaries, which first appeared in the 1920s, were a sort of reaction against both the content and the rapidly crystallizing grammar of the early fiction film. The poetic mode moved away from continuity editing and instead organized images of the material world by means of associations and patterns, both in terms of time and space. Well-rounded characters{{snd}}"lifelike people"{{snd}}were absent; instead, people appeared in these films as entities, just like any other, that are found in the material world. The films were fragmentary, impressionistic, lyrical. Their disruption of the coherence of time and space{{snd}}a coherence favored by the fiction films of the day{{snd}}can also be seen as an element of the modernist counter-model of cinematic narrative. The "real world"{{snd}}Nichols calls it the "historical world"{{snd}}was broken up into fragments and aesthetically reconstituted using film form. Examples of this style include Joris Ivens' ''Rain'' (1928), which records a passing summer shower over Amsterdam; [[László Moholy-Nagy]]'s ''Play of Light: Black, White, Grey (1930)'', in which he films one of his own kinetic sculptures, emphasizing not the sculpture itself but the play of light around it; [[Oskar Fischinger]]'s abstract animated films; Francis Thompson's ''[[N.Y., N.Y. (film)|N.Y., N.Y.]]'' (1957), a [[city symphony]] film; and [[Chris Marker]]'s ''[[Sans Soleil]]'' (1982).

Expository documentaries speak directly to the viewer, often in the form of an authoritative commentary employing voiceover or titles, proposing a strong argument and point of view. These films are rhetorical, and try to persuade the viewer. (They may use a rich and sonorous male voice.) The (voice-of-God) commentary often sounds "objective" and omniscient. Images are often not paramount; they exist to advance the argument. The rhetoric insistently presses upon us to read the images in a certain fashion. Historical documentaries in this mode deliver an unproblematic and "objective" account and interpretation of past events.

Examples: TV shows and films like ''[[Biography (TV program)|Biography]]'', ''[[America's Most Wanted]]'', many science and nature documentaries, [[Ken Burns]]' ''[[The Civil War (miniseries)|The Civil War]]'' (1990), [[Robert Hughes (critic)|Robert Hughes]]' ''[[The Shock of the New]]'' (1980), [[John Berger]]'s ''[[Ways of Seeing]]'' (1972), [[Frank Capra]]'s wartime ''[[Why We Fight]]'' series, and [[Pare Lorentz]]'s ''[[The Plow That Broke the Plains]]'' (1936).

=== Observational ===
[[File:Creating documentary 01.jpg|thumb|Film team at [[Port of Dar es Salaam]] with two ferries]]
Observational documentaries attempt to spontaneously observe their subjects with minimal intervention. Filmmakers who worked in this subgenre often saw the poetic mode as too abstract and the expository mode as too didactic. The first observational docs date back to the 1960s; the technological developments which made them possible include mobile lightweight cameras and portable sound recording equipment for synchronized sound. Often, this mode of film eschewed voice-over commentary, post-synchronized dialogue and music, or re-enactments. The films aimed for immediacy, intimacy, and revelation of individual human character in ordinary life situations.

=== Types ===
{{Main article|Documentary mode}}
'''Participatory documentaries''' believe that it is impossible for the act of filmmaking to not influence or alter the events being filmed. What these films do is emulate the approach of the anthropologist: participant-observation. Not only is the filmmaker part of the film, we also get a sense of how situations in the film are affected or altered by their presence. Nichols: "The filmmaker steps out from behind the cloak of voice-over commentary, steps away from poetic meditation, steps down from a fly-on-the-wall perch, and becomes a social actor (almost) like any other. (Almost like any other because the filmmaker retains the camera, and with it, a certain degree of potential power and control over events.)" The encounter between filmmaker and subject becomes a critical element of the film. Rouch and Morin named the approach cinéma vérité, translating Dziga Vertov's kinopravda into French; the "truth" refers to the truth of the encounter rather than some absolute truth.

'''Reflexive documentaries''' do not see themselves as a transparent window on the world; instead, they draw attention to their own constructedness, and the fact that they are representations. How does the world get represented by documentary films? This question is central to this subgenre of films. They prompt us to "question the authenticity of documentary in general." It is the most self-conscious of all the modes, and is highly skeptical of "realism". It may use Brechtian alienation strategies to jar us, in order to "defamiliarize" what we are seeing and how we are seeing it.

'''Performative documentaries''' stress subjective experience and emotional response to the world. They are strongly personal, unconventional, perhaps poetic and/or experimental, and might include hypothetical enactments of events designed to make us experience what it might be like for us to possess a certain specific perspective on the world that is not our own, e.g. that of black, gay men in Marlon Riggs's ''Tongues Untied'' (1989) or Jenny Livingston's ''Paris Is Burning'' (1991). This subgenre might also lend itself to certain groups (e.g. women, ethnic minorities, gays and lesbians, etc.) to "speak about themselves". Often, a battery of techniques, many borrowed from fiction or avant-garde films, are used. Performative docs often link up personal accounts or experiences with larger political or historical realities.

=== Educational films ===
Documentaries are shown in schools around the world in order to educate students. Used to introduce various topics to children, they are often used with a school lesson or shown many times to reinforce an idea.

== Translation ==

There are several challenges associated with translation of documentaries. The main two are working conditions and problems with terminology.

=== Working conditions ===

Documentary translators very often have to meet tight deadlines. Normally, the translator has between five and seven days to hand over the translation of a 90-minute programme. Dubbing studios typically give translators a week to translate a documentary, but in order to earn a good salary, translators have to deliver their translations in a much shorter period, usually when the studio decides to deliver the final programme to the client sooner or when the broadcasting channel sets a tight deadline, e.g. on documentaries discussing the latest news.<ref>Matamala, A. (2009). Main Challenges in the Translation of Documentaries. In J. Cintas (Ed.), New Trends in Audiovisual Translation (pp. 109–120). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters, p. 110-111.</ref>

Another problem is the lack of postproduction script or the poor quality of the transcription. A correct transcription is essential for a translator to do their work properly, however many times the script is not even given to the translator, which is a major impediment since documentaries are characterised by "the abundance of terminological units and very specific proper names".<ref name="Matamala, A. 2009 pp. 109-120">Matamala, A. (2009). Main Challenges in the Translation of Documentaries. In J. Cintas (Ed.), New Trends in Audiovisual Translation (pp. 109–120). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters, p. 111</ref> When the script is given to the translator, it is usually poorly transcribed or outright incorrect making the translation unnecessarily difficult and demanding because all of the proper names and specific terminology have to be correct in a documentary programme in order for it to be a reliable source of information, hence the translator has to check every term on their own. Such mistakes in proper names are for instance: "Jungle Reinhard instead of Django Reinhart, Jorn Asten instead of Jane Austen, and Magnus Axle instead of Aldous Huxley".<ref name="Matamala, A. 2009 pp. 109-120" />

=== Terminology ===

The process of translation of a documentary programme requires working with very specific, often scientific terminology. Documentary translators are not usually specialists in a given field. Therefore, they are compelled to undertake extensive research whenever asked to make a translation of a specific documentary programme in order to understand it correctly and deliver the final product free of mistakes and inaccuracies. Generally, documentaries contain a large number of specific terms, with which translators have to familiarise themselves on their own, for example:

<blockquote>
The documentary ''Beetles, Record Breakers'' makes use of 15 different terms to refer to beetles in less than 30 minutes (longhorn beetle, cellar beetle, stag beetle, burying beetle or gravediggers, sexton beetle, tiger beetle, bloody nose beetle, tortoise beetle, diving beetle, devil's coach horse, weevil, click beetle, malachite beetle, oil beetle, cockchafer), apart from mentioning other animals such as horseshoe bats or meadow brown butterflies.<ref>Matamala, A. (2009). Main Challenges in the Translation of Documentaries. In J. Cintas (Ed.), New Trends in Audiovisual Translation (pp. 109–120). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters, p. 113</ref>
</blockquote>

This poses a real challenge for the translators because they have to render the meaning, i.e. find an equivalent, of a very specific, scientific term in the target language and frequently the narrator uses a more general name instead of a specific term and the translator has to rely on the image presented in the programme to understand which term is being discussed in order to transpose it in the target language accordingly.<ref>Matamala, A. (2009). Main Challenges in the Translation of Documentaries. In J. Cintas (Ed.), New Trends in Audiovisual Translation (pp. 109–120). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters, p. 113–114</ref> Additionally, translators of minorised languages often have to face another problem: some terms may not even exist in the target language. In such cases, they have to create new terminology or consult specialists to find proper solutions. Also, sometimes the official nomenclature differs from the terminology used by actual specialists, which leaves the translator to decide between using the official vocabulary that can be found in the dictionary, or rather opting for spontaneous expressions used by real experts in real life situations.<ref>Matamala, A. (2009). Main Challenges in the Translation of Documentaries. In J. Cintas (Ed.), New Trends in Audiovisual Translation (pp. 109–120). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters, p. 114–115</ref>

== See also ==
{{Portal|Film}}
{{Div col|colwidth=18em}}
* [[Actuality film]]
* [[Citizen media]]
* [[Concert film]]
* [[Dance film]]
* [[Docudrama]]
* [[Ethnofiction]]
* [[Ethnographic film]]
* [[List of documentary films]]
* [[List of documentary film festivals]]
* [[List of documentary television channels]]
* [[List of directors and producers of documentaries]]
* [[Mockumentary]]
* [[Mondo film]]
* [[Nature documentary]]
* [[Outline of film]]
* [[Participatory video]]
* [[Political cinema]]
* [[Public-access television]]
* [[Reality film]]
* [[Sponsored film]]
* [[Visual anthropology]]
* [[Women's cinema]]
{{Div col end}}

=== Some documentary film awards ===
* [[Grierson Awards]]
* [[Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature]]
* [[Joris Ivens Award]], [[International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam]] (IDFA), (named after [[Joris Ivens]])
* [[Cinéma_du_Réel#Prizes|Cinéma du Réel]] prizes, including the Grand Prix and Prix du premier film Loridan-Ivens / First Film Loridan-Ivens Award (formerly Joris Ivens Award), among others
* Filmmaker Award, [[Margaret Mead Film Festival]]
* Grand Prize, [[Visions du Réel]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Sources and bibliography ==
{{refbegin}}
* Aitken, Ian (ed.). ''Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film''. New York: [[Routledge]], 2005. {{ISBN|978-1-57958-445-0}}.
* [[Erik Barnouw|Barnouw, Erik]]. ''Documentary: A History of the Non-Fiction Film'', 2nd rev. ed. New York: [[Oxford University Press]], 1993. {{ISBN|978-0-19-507898-5}}. Still a useful introduction.
* [[Ron Burnett]]. [http://rburnett.ecuad.ca/archive/2008/8/29/reflections-on-the-documentary-cinema.html "Reflections on the Documentary Cinema"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120209145300/http://rburnett.ecuad.ca/archive/2008/8/29/reflections-on-the-documentary-cinema.html |date=9 February 2012 }}
* Burton, Julianne (ed.). ''The Social Documentary in Latin America''. Pittsburgh, Penn.: [[University of Pittsburgh Press]], 1990. {{ISBN|978-0-8229-3621-3}}.
* Dawson, Jonathan. "Dziga Vertov".
* Ellis, Jack C., and Betsy A. McLane. "A New History of Documentary Film." New York: Continuum International, 2005. {{ISBN|978-0-8264-1750-3}}, {{ISBN|978-0-8264-1751-0}}.
* [[Jill Godmilow|Godmilow, Jill]]: ''Kill the Documentary. A Letter to Filmmakers, Students and Scholars'', Foreword by Bill Nichols, Columbia UP, New York 2022
* [[David A. Goldsmith|Goldsmith, David A.]] ''The Documentary Makers: Interviews with 15 of the Best in the Business''. Hove, East Sussex: RotoVision, 2003. {{ISBN|978-2-88046-730-2}}.
* {{cite book |title=Devices of Curiosity: Early Cinema and Popular Science |last=Gaycken |first=Oliver |year=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-986070-8}}
* Klotman, Phyllis R. and Culter, Janet K.(eds.). ''Struggles for Representation: African American Documentary Film and Video'' Bloomington and Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press, 1999. {{ISBN|978-0-253-21347-1}}.
* Leach, Jim, and Jeannette Sloniowski (eds.). ''Candid Eyes: Essays on Canadian Documentaries''. Toronto; Buffalo: [[University of Toronto Press]], 2003. {{ISBN|978-0-8020-4732-8}}, {{ISBN|978-0-8020-8299-2}}.
* [[Bill Nichols (film critic)|Nichols, Bill]]. ''Introduction to Documentary'', Bloomington, Ind.: [[Indiana University Press]], 2001. {{ISBN|978-0-253-33954-6}}, {{ISBN|978-0-253-21469-0}}.
* Nichols, Bill. ''Representing Reality: Issues and Concepts in Documentary''. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 1991. {{ISBN|978-0-253-34060-3}}, {{ISBN|978-0-253-20681-7}}.
* Nornes, Markus. ''Forest of Pressure: Ogawa Shinsuke and Postwar Japanese Documentary''. Minneapolis: [[University of Minnesota Press]], 2007. {{ISBN|978-0-8166-4907-5}}, {{ISBN|978-0-8166-4908-2}}.
* Nornes, Markus. ''Japanese Documentary Film: The Meiji Era through Hiroshima''. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2003. {{ISBN|978-0-8166-4045-4}}, {{ISBN|978-0-8166-4046-1}}.
* [[Paul Rotha|Rotha, Paul]], ''Documentary diary; An Informal History of the British Documentary Film, 1928–1939''. New York: Hill and Wang, 1973. {{ISBN|978-0-8090-3933-3}}.
* Saunders, Dave. ''Direct Cinema: Observational Documentary and the Politics of the Sixties''. London: Wallflower Press, 2007. {{ISBN|978-1-905674-16-9}}, {{ISBN|978-1-905674-15-2}}.
* Saunders, Dave. ''Documentary: The Routledge Film Guidebook''. London: Routledge, 2010.
* Tobias, Michael. ''The Search for Reality: The Art of Documentary Filmmaking''. Studio City, CA: Michael Wiese Productions 1997. {{ISBN|0-941188-62-0}}
* Walker, Janet, and Diane Waldeman (eds.). ''Feminism and Documentary''. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999. {{ISBN|978-0-8166-3006-6}}, {{ISBN|978-0-8166-3007-3}}.
* Wyver, John. ''The Moving Image: An International History of Film, Television & Radio''. Oxford: [[Basil Blackwell]] Ltd. in association with the [[British Film Institute]], 1989. {{ISBN|978-0-631-15529-4}}.
* [http://wwwmcc.murdoch.edu.au/ReadingRoom/doco/biblio.htm Murdoch.edu] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150311065227/http://wwwmcc.murdoch.edu.au/ReadingRoom/doco/biblio.htm |date=11 March 2015 }}, Documentary{{snd}}reading list
{{refend}}

=== Ethnographic film ===
{{refbegin}}
* Emilie de Brigard, "The History of Ethnographic Film," in ''Principles of Visual Anthropology'', ed. Paul Hockings. Berlin and New York City : Mouton de Gruyter, 1995, pp.&nbsp;13–43.
* Leslie Devereaux, "Cultures, Disciplines, Cinemas," in ''Fields of Vision. Essays in Film Studies, Visual Anthropology and Photography'', ed. Leslie Devereaux & Roger Hillman. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995, pp.&nbsp;329–339.
* Faye Ginsburg, Lila Abu-Lughod and Brian Larkin (eds.), ''Media Worlds: Anthropology on New Terrain''. Berkeley, CA: [[University of California Press]], 2002. {{ISBN|978-0-520-23231-0}}.
* Anna Grimshaw, ''The Ethnographer's Eye: Ways of Seeing in Modern Anthropology''. Cambridge, UK: [[Cambridge University Press]], 2001. {{ISBN|978-0-521-77310-2}}.
* [[Karl G. Heider]], ''Ethnographic Film''. Austin: [[University of Texas Press]], 1994.
* [[Luc de Heusch]], ''Cinéma et Sciences Sociales'', Paris: [[UNESCO]], 1962. Published in English as ''The Cinema and Social Science. A Survey of Ethnographic and Sociological Films''. UNESCO, 1962.
* [[Fredric Jameson]], ''Signatures of the Visible''. New York & London: Routledge, 1990.
* Pierre-L. Jordan, ''Premier Contact-Premier Regard'', Marseille: Musées de Marseille. Images en Manoeuvres Editions, 1992.
* [[André Leroi-Gourhan]], "Cinéma et Sciences Humaines. Le Film Ethnologique Existe-t-il?," ''Revue de Géographie Humaine et d'Ethnologie'' 3 (1948), pp.&nbsp;42–50.
* [[David MacDougall]], ''Transcultural Cinema''. Princeton, NJ: [[Princeton University Press]], 1998. {{ISBN|978-0-691-01234-6}}.
* David MacDougall, "Whose Story Is It?," in ''Ethnographic Film Aesthetics and Narrative Traditions'', ed. Peter I. Crawford and Jan K. Simonsen. Aarhus, Intervention Press, 1992, pp.&nbsp;25–42.
* [[Fatimah Tobing Rony]], ''The Third Eye: Race, Cinema and Ethnographic Spectacle''. Durham, NC: [[Duke University Press]], 1996. {{ISBN|978-0-8223-1840-8}}.
* [[Georges Sadoul]], ''Histoire Générale du Cinéma''. Vol. 1, ''L'Invention du Cinéma 1832–1897''. Paris: Denöel, 1977, pp.&nbsp;73–110.
* [[Pierre Sorlin]], ''Sociologie du Cinéma'', Paris: Aubier Montaigne, 1977, pp.&nbsp;7–74.
* Charles Warren, "Introduction, with a Brief History of Nonfiction Film," in ''Beyond Document. Essays on Nonfiction Film'', ed. Charles Warren. Hanover and London: [[Wesleyan University Press]], 1996, pp.&nbsp;1–22.
* Ismail Xavier, "Cinema: Revelação e Engano", in ''O Olhar'' {{in lang|pt}}, ed. Adauto Novaes. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1993, pp.&nbsp;367–384.
{{refend}}

==External links==
* {{Commons category inline|Documentary films}}
<!--======================== {{No more links}} ============================
    | PLEASE BE CAUTIOUS IN ADDING MORE LINKS TO THIS ARTICLE. Wikipedia  |
    | is not a collection of links nor should it be used for advertising. |
    |                                                                     |
    |           Excessive or inappropriate links WILL BE DELETED.         |
    | See [[Wikipedia:External links]] & [[Wikipedia:Spam]] for details.  |
    |                                                                     |
    | If there are already plentiful links, please propose additions or   |
    | replacements on this article's discussion page, or submit your link |
    | to the relevant category at the Open Directory Project (dmoz.org)   |
    | and link back to that category using the {{dmoz}} template.         |
======================={{No more links}}=============================-->

{{Film genres}}
{{Filmsbygenre}}
{{Narration}}
{{Journalism}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Documentary film| ]]
[[Category:Film genres]]
[[Category:Investigative journalism]]
[[Category:Types of journalism]]
[[Category:Television genres]]