Documentary as the creative treatment of actuality.
Usually the documentary are set in the present or the past, but the genre never stays long inside any set boundaries.
Documentary always seems concerned with uncovering further dimensions to actuality and at the same time implying social criticism
The documentary scrutinizes the organization of human life and attempts to develop a humane consciousness in its audience.
The best documentaries are models of disciplined passion, showing the familiar in an unfamiliar way. They invite us to function at a keen level of awareness and even to follow this up by taking action.
Bill Nichols’ six categories of documentary
–Poetic documentary (1920s): poetically assembles fragments of the world but lacks specificity and is too abstract
–Expository documentary(1920s): rhetoric image and voice of god, have a strong purpose of persuading the audience the truth. Too dialectic
–observational film(1960s): observes things as they happen, without imposing commentary or using re-enactment.
—Participatory doc (1960s): interviews or interacts with its participants and uses archival film to retrieve history.
–reflexive doc(1980s): questions documentary form and conventions
–performative doc (1980s):
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