T H E H I S T O RY O F

D O C U M E N TA R I E S
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 Documentaries were invented
around about the time films
(the late 1800s) by the Lumeire
brothers, they shot unedited
clips that captures the essence
of real life actualities.

The word documentary was created

by John Grierson.
The creativity of actuality.
 Documentary began with Nanook of The North made by
Robert Flaherty in 1992.
Nanook of The North was the first feature length factual film
and the first to use the creative interpretation of reality, as
described by Grierson.
 Grierson became a major in poetic-realist
approaches to documentary.
One of his first informational films, Nightmail
(1936) outlined the mail train from London to
Edinburgh
Some criticised Grierson of neglecting social and
political issues in his filmmaking.
 Direct Cinema began in the US, this aimed to address social
and political issues in a direct manner to give a sense of
actuality without a filmmaker.
This was achieved by the development of a smaller, more
lightweight filter for cameras that allowed the camera to be
hand held.

Keys names in this movement include the Mayles brothers

and Fred Wiseman.
 Modern documentaries such as
Supersize Me originated from direct
cinema.
 At the same time of Direct Cinema, Cinema Verite
occurred.
Cinema Verite is a minimalist style of film that gives
the viewer the feeling of actually being present .
Verite favours hand-held camera. Natural lighting
and direct sound.

Verite filmmakers include, Ken Loach and Jean

Rouch.
Verite makes film seem more realistic and truthful as
oppose to the recently used mockumentary.
 An example of Verite filming in documentary is Channel
4s Benefits Street.
DOCUMENTARIES: a chronology
 NOTABLE DOCUMENTARIES
THROUGH TIME
Hoop
Dreams O.J: Made in
Follows the lives of America
two Chicagoan A chronicle of the
boys who struggle rise and fall of O.J.
to become college Simpson, whose high-
basketball players profile murder trial
on the road to exposed the extent of
going professional. American racial
tensions, revealing a
fractured and divided
nation.

March of
The Thin
the
Blue Line
A documentary Penguins
that argued that In the Antarctic,
a man was every March
wrongly since the
convicted for beginning of
murder by a time, the quest
corrupt justice begins to find the
system in Dallas perfect mate and
County, Texas. start a family.