Types of Documentaries

Today in class we looked at this link: https://collaborativedocumentary.wordpress.com/6-types-of-documentary/

1. Poetic Documentaries
-First started in 1920's
-Fragmentary, impressionistic, lyrical
-Moved away from continuity editing and involved more organized images of the material world by means of associations and patterns, both in terms of time and space

2. Expository Documentaries
-Speak directly to viewer
-Proposing a strong argument and point of view
-Images are often not paramount; they exist to advance the argument
-The films are rhetorical and try to persuade the viewer
-May use a rich and sonorous male voice

3. Observational Documentaries
-Attempt to simply and spontaneously observe lived life with a minimum of intervention
-First started in 1960's
-Use of mobile lightweight cameras and portable sound recording equipment for synchronized sound as a result from advancing technology
-Voice-over commentary, post-synchronised dialogue and music

4. Participatory Documentaries
-Involves themselves in the story, filmmaker is apart of the film
-Shows how the situation and events in the film are affected or altered by the filmmaker's presence 
-The filmmaker retains the camera therefore having a lot of power and control over the documentary

5. Reflexive Documentaries
-Draw attention to their own constructedness 
-Self-conscious and is highly skeptical of "realism"
-"How does the world get represented through documentary films?" Is a central question in this sub-genre of documentaries

6. Performative Documentaries
-Stress subjective experience and emotional response to the world
-strongly personal, unconventional, perhaps poetic and/or experimental
-May include exploring events and situations that are not our own (e.g. massacres, war, important historical events)
-The sub-genre may lend itself to certain groups (e.g. women, the LGBT community, ethnic minorities)

WHAT I LEARNT FROM THIS
What I learnt from this is that there definitely isn't just one type of documentary. Before this lesson I had the perception that a documentary was a type of film and that was it. I had no clue that there were sub-genre's within the genre. Now that we have identified these sub-genre's I feel that I have a better understanding of documentaries and I will be able to identify the different types when I come across any in the future. I also know that this information will help me create a documentary in the near-future with the up-coming film assessment.

01/02/16