The Evolution of Documentary

By Dan Ackerman

The Conception of Documentary

The concept of Documentary was first established by the Lumire brothers in 1895. The two brothers would film the natural world around them, on their self conceived film cameras, and showcase them to the public. The brothers drew inspiration from, and amended the flaws, of Edison's Kinetoscope to create their own revolutionary cameras. For example, due to the magnificent weight that the Kinetoscope bore, the Lumire brothers reduced the weight and size of their cameras design so that it could become more portable and not resigned to one place. Also the Kinetoscope was limited so that only one person could view the film at any one time, so the brothers created the technology for being able to project their images so that a large amount of people could view the film. Although their films were a mere 50 seconds long and contained clips of normal everyday life, audiences were fascinated with seeing moving photographs and would pay great deals to experience these images.

Nanook of The North

In 1922, Robert Flaherty, created a silent feature length Documentary entitled Nanook of The North, following Nanook and his Inuit family in a year of their life. Although the Documentary seemed to be portraying true real time events, in actuality, everything was staged and the subject, Nanook, was actually just a character. Although, this was very deceiving for viewers to watch and strayed from the truth, the reason why Flaherty chose to stage the events, was to make the film more dramatic and interesting to watch, and to give the audience a more enjoyable and thrilling film. John Grierson actually created the word, Documentary, to describe this film, stating Nanook of The North is the creative interpretation of reality.

Grierson and Night Mail

Grierson then went on to head the GPO, General Post Office, film unit in the 1930's, which led him to be able to put across his ideals and his views on how Documentaries should be created and became a large influence in the creation of a poetic outlook on documentaries as seen by his feature film, Nightmail. Nightmail, was created to send a message to the people of Britain after the first world war, to all come together as a community and create a successful community together.

Triumph of the Will

A very influential documentary of this time period was Triumph of the Will, directed by Leni Riefenstahl, focusing on the movements of the 1934 Nazi party. Hitler wanted to create a documentary that expressed views of him and his party, that would twist people's opinions of him to a more positive outlook. This documentary expressed views that made Hitler look like a God and that he was the future of Germany and the man to take them forward. Although these opinions were expressed, they weren't necessarily the views of Riefenstahl. Hitler personally chose her to create the Documentary as she was seen to be one of, if not, the best film-maker in Germany, Hitler didn't care for the gender of the director, he just wanted the best that was to offer.

Direct Cinema and Cinema Verit

In the 1950's and 60's, a new era of Documentary-making was being created through the styles of Direct Cinema and Cinema Verit. Both these styles are ultimately trying to reach the same goal: to portray the truth, although they have different techniques which they use to achieve it. For example, documentaries that are influenced by Direct Cinema, although they are seemingly presenting the truth, the film makers are still editing the documentary and are in full control of what gets seen on the screen. They choose what the film expresses and may show things out of context to make something look like the truth. Cinema Verit on the other hand, shows the truth as it is, without the interference of the film maker, and gives the audience the sense that what is happening directly in front of the camera is trustworthy. Light, hand-held cameras where able to help to create this new wave of film-making as film-makers could shadow subjects and create fly-on-the-wall styled documentaries.

Mockumentary

In recent times, a new style of film has come about, in which are known as Mockumentaries. These films mimic the codes and conventions that a documentary has and applies them to a film, along with a storyline, for comic effect. For example, with the 2006 film, Borat, the storyline revolves around a television reporter and his antics in America, in which the whole film is presented as a type of documentary or television programme, and again mimics some of the codes and conventions of a documentary. For example, the protagonist frequently directly addresses the audience and talks directly at them, which isn't usually typical of films whereas it is with Documentaries.