Documentary types

Expository Documentaries

An expository documentary is a documentary filmed to engage the audience by speaking directly too them. The way they are filmed is by using rhetorical information to attempt to persuade the viewer. In a expository documentary they often have a voice over or titles on top of a series of images which are used for description and information, the voice over is what addresses the viewer directly. An example of an expository documentary is David Attenborough's Frozen Planet, this is a film which shows wildlife in the Antarctica. David's voice is placed over the top of the animals and he gives in depth information about the lives of the animals. The documentary shows the penguins in there natural habitat and the dangerous situations they have to go through for survival, the documentary is not staged and it enables the audience to see what life is like for arctic animals. 





Observational Documentaries

This is a documentary where the filmmaker is a neutral observer. It is filmed to document how life is lived and observed by the filmmaker. The viewers are able to see how people/animals react when in different situations. The filmmaker is often out of shot and they rarely influence what is happening. The film is all substantial as nothing is staged which means the footage is often quite shaky due to the camera crew having to move quickly. Big Brother is a prime example of an observational documentary, it is a game show franchise where a group of people 'housemates' are put into the big brother house and  are forced to live with each other away from the outside world. Marcus Bentley is the voice over for Big Brother and he comments on all the activities and drama within the house. The housemates are often told to sit in the diary room and are spoken to by the big brother about there life in the house. Big Brother is an observational documentary because  

Interactive Documentaries


An interactive documentary is adverse to an observational documentary as instead of hiding the filmmaker, they make his/hers presence prominent. The filmmaker is in the documentary because it shows the interaction between them and the people being filmed. This way you are able to see the filmmakers reaction as well as the people getting spoken to. The filmmaker will appear on screen and ask the interviewee a variety of informal and formal questions. The camera work isn't done to perfection as the camera crew are following the interviewer around with a hand held camera. An example of an interactive documentary is Louis Feroux 'When Louis met Jimmy' This is a documentary when Louis follows Jimmy around asking him a variety of questions to try and stump him to find out information about his life, you see what everyday life is for Jimmy Saville. This is an interactive documentary as you see Louis speaking to Jimmy and you are able to see his reactions to Jimmy's responses. Louis spends a few days with Jimmy going to locations which Jimmy would usually go to, this allows the audience to have a good understanding of how he lives his life. Louis doesn't hesitate to input his opinion and doesn't always agree with what Jimmy says.  

Reflexive Documentaries

In a reflexive documentary, the film maker usually acknowledges his/her presence on the camera and they give the audience a narrative for the documentary. This style of documentary makes the viewers just as interested in the construction of the documentary as they are the actual information in the film. Reflexive documentaries are usually filmed with very minimal camera crew, mostly just the interviewer and a camera man. The audience are very aware of of the problems the film maker faces when filming the documentary. Reflexive documentaries are truthful and they aim to provide the audience with realism. Nick Broomfield's 'Tales of the Grim Sleeper' this is a documentary about a notorious serial killer known as the Grim Sleeper who went to South Central Los Angeles and terrorized the location for 25 years. Nick interviews different people to gather as much information on the killing as possible. Nick is mostly known for his reflexive style when making documentary films, he also films with minimal camera crew, being himself and a camera man. Sometimes when filming he actually shows the camera crew in the documentary which is a good way to film in a reflexive style. Nick Broomfield has inspired many famous film makers with his style of creating a documentary. 


Performative Documentaries

Performative documentaries aim to stress 










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 Performative documentaries stress subjective experience and emotional response 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, e.g. that of black, gay men in Marlon Riggs’s Tongues Untied (1989) or Jenny Livingston’s Paris Is Burning (1991). This sub-genre might also lend itself to certain groups (e.g. women, ethnic minorities, gays and lesbians, etc) to ‘speak about themselves.’ Often, a battery of techniques, many borrowed from fiction or avant-garde films, are used. Performative docs often link up personal accounts or experiences with larger political or historical realities.

Examples: Alain Resnais’ Night And Fog (1955), with a commentary by Holocaust survivior Jean Cayrol, is not a historical account of the Holocaust but instead a subjective account of it; it’s a film about memory. Also, Peter Forgacs’ Free Fall (1988) and Danube Exodus (1999); and Robert Gardner’s Forest of Bliss (1985), a film about India that I’ve long heard about and look forward to seeing.

I can use these different forms of documentary to analyse my own documentary technique. What I find particularly interesting is the role truth plays in documentaries and how the different forms presented here show facts in very different ways.