History of Documentary

By RadicalRadish

  • Actuality Films

    Actuality Films
    Pre 1900s, short snippets of events were taken. Without any overarching structure, they are not considered documentaries, but rather minute - 2 minute long scenes. The Lumiere Brothers in Lyon coined the term and were theorized to have created the first publicly shown actuality film, "La sortie des usines Lumiere" in 1895. The name translates to "Leaving the Lumiere Factory". Film

  • Dziga Vertov and Kino-Eye

    Dziga Vertov and Kino-Eye
    During the Russian Revolution, Dziga Vertov cultivated Kino-Eye to oppose the other entertainment films that were starting to emerge from Hollywood, and service films from the Soviet Union. He sought to create "cinema-truth", and Kino-Eye was to capture "life unawares", similar to the observational genre today. His widely considered masterpiece, "Man with a Movie Camera", captures everyday activities. Edited together shots started the emergence of documentary. [Film](shorturl.at/ejkuS)

  • Nanook of The North

    Nanook of The North
    American film maker Robert Flaherty created one of, if not the first original documentary profiling the lives of a real Eskimo family. Flaherty took a camera with him on an expedition to northern Quebec, Canada. Flaherty's film is considered a docudrama nowadays since his dramatization and thought to stage several scenes. It was distributed across the US. [Film](shorturl.at/hkqW1)

  • John Grieson

    John Grieson
    In 1926, Scotsman John Grieson coined the term documentary in a review of Robert Flaherty's "Moana". He had a strong social commitment to the impact of mass media on public opinion, and his approach to documentary perforated BBC and television.

  • World War 2 and Propaganda Films

    World War 2 and Propaganda Films
    WW2 was full of propaganda films. Usually documentary style productions to spread subjective content presented to persuade the viewer towards a deliberately misleading worldview. Emittance of certain events or use of rhetoric makes the viewer sympathize with the intended party. Famous examples are often the Allied series "Why We Fight" created in response to the Nazi propaganda film "Triumph of the Will." [WWF](shorturl.at/jD458) [TOTW](shorturl.at/crGN6)

  • Cinema Vérité

    "Truthful cinema" started to develop independently around the world in the 1950s. The French new wave developed the term, while the US called it "Direct Cinema". Cameras and sound recording got smaller, encouraging a direct engagement between the subject and the audience. The movement extended well into the 1970s. The influence is prevalent in whip-pans in modern cop shows and mockumentary shows like the Office. Famous examples, Chronicle of a Summer and Gimme Shelter. [Film](shorturl.at/pBCYZ)