Types of Documentary

Documentary films fall into various genres. Examples of these, would be the 'Compilation' film and 'Direct Cinema' documentary. Bordwell and Thompson's 'Film Art: An Introduction' describes these genres in detail and I have found it to be very useful. Below is a list of the genres and examples to go with them, using this book as a reference:

Compilation Film

 This genre is composed of multiple images being assembled from archive footage. For example, 'The Atomic Cafe', is produced using "newsreel footage and instructional films to suggest how 1950's America culture reacted to the proliferation of nuclear weapons"1. 

Direct-Cinema Documentary

  Direct-Cinema is known for recording an event as it happens, with "minimal interference from the filmmaker"1. This form of documentary was founded around the 1950's and 60's when portable sound and camera equipment was readily available to filmmakers. Films such as 'Primary' use this style.

Nature Documentary

  Pretty self-explanitory, this genre often uses magnifying lenses to capture the characteristics of small insects for example. David Attenborough's work obviously falls into this form of documentary, with recent work such as 'Africa' becoming increasingly popular. Imax cinema has been the format for many nature documentaries, with 'Everest' and 'Galapagos'.

Portrait Documentary

  "This type of film centres on scenes from the life of a compelling person"1. Examples include 'Crumb' and 'American Movie'.

Synthetic Documentary

  Demonstrated when a documentary uses many of these formats in one film, through using elements from archive footage to interviews. Examples of this style would be '9/11' and 'In the year of the pig'.

In the seminar on 5th February 2013, we were given a table containing the six modes of Documentary, according to what Bill Nicols defines in his book: Introduction to Documentary (2001). Below is a copy of the table:

The Poetic Mode	reassembling fragments of the world', a transformation of historical material into a more abstract, lyrical form, usually associated with 1920s and modernist ideas
The Expository Mode	'direct address', social issues assembled into an argumentative frame, mediated by a voice-of-God narration, associated with 1920s-1930s, and some of the rhetoric and polemic surrounding World War Two
The Observational Mode	as technology advanced by the 1960s and cameras became smaller and lighter, able to document life in a less intrusive manner, there is less control required over lighting etc, leaving the social actors free to act and the documentarists free to record without interacting with each other
The Participatory Mode	the encounter between film-maker and subject is recorded, as the film-maker actively engages with the situation they are documenting, asking questions of their subjects, sharing experiences with them. Heavily reliant on the honesty of witnesses
The Reflexive Mode	demonstrates consciousness of the process of reading documentary, and engages actively with the issues of realism and representation, acknowledging the presence of the viewer and the modality judgements they arrive at. Corresponds to critical theory of the 1980s
The Performative Mode	acknowledges the emotional and subjective aspects of documentary, and presents ideas as part of a context, having different meanings for different people, often autobiographical in nature

 

References:

1. Bordwell, D / Thompson K (2010) Film Art an Introduction (Ninth Edition)New York: McGraw-Hill