Poetic documentaries, is the first form shedding light in 1920's that went agaisnt the traditional form of fictional film. The content and the mode were focused on the time and space rather than a continuation of editings. Well-rounded characters were absent; instead, people appeared in these films as entities. The films were fragmentary, impressionistic, lyrical. Their disruption of the coherence of time and space—a coherence favored by the fiction films of the day—can also be seen as an element of the modernist counter-model of cinematic narrative.
Expository documentaries as the title mentions, it is a form of exposure on a subject. It delivers a strong argument and point of view and tries to persude that viewer. It also centers on its techniques of direct link to the audience as it uses (voice-of God) commentary and images that exist to advance the argument. Historical documentaries in this mode deliver an unproblematic and ‘objective’ account and interpretation of past events. Observational documentaries attempt to simply and spontaneously observe lived life with a minimum of intervention. This fascinating form of documentary dates back t the 1960's, due to the advancement of technology and portable equipment. Often, this mode of film eschewed voice-over commentary, post-synchronized dialogue and music, or re-enactments. The films aimed for immediacy, intimacy, and revelation of the natural world and characters of beings in their own environment. Participatory documentaries strong belief that the act of film making does influence or changes the events being filmed. In this particular form, the emphasis is on emulating the art work of an anthropologist: participant-observation. Not only is the filmmaker part of the film, we also get a sense of how situations in the film are affected or altered by his/her presence. The encounter between filmmaker and subject becomes a pivotal point in the process. This approach was coined as cinéma vérité, the “truth” refers to the truth of the encounter rather than some absolute truth. Reflexive documentaries don’t see themselves as a transparent window on the world; instead they draw attention to their own constructedness, and the fact that they are representations. How does the world get represented by documentary films? This question is central to this sub-genre of films. They prompt us to “question the authenticity of documentary in general.” Performative documentaries based mostly on the personal experiences and emotional responses to the world.They are strongly personal, unconventional, perhaps poetic and/or experimental, and might include hypothetical enactments of events designed to make us experience what it might be like for us to possess a certain specific perspective on the world that is not our own. This sub-genre might also lend itself to certain groups (e.g. women, ethnic minorities, gays and lesbians, etc) to ‘speak about themselves.’ This form is often created on the basis of personal accounts or experiences with larger political or historical realities. |
ExamplesJoris Ivens’ Rain (1928)
Christopher Dillon Quinn- God Grew Tired of Us (2006). The Planet Earth Series by BBC. Michael Moore- Sicko (2007). Vertov’s The Man with a Movie Camera (1929) Ben Coccio- Zero Day (2003) |