Documentary Mini-Task

A documentary is a non-fictional piece of footage with an intended purpose to inform the audience on certain topics or to enlighten the audience on different aspects of reality. A documentary can be made up of a number of elements whilst still remaining non-fictional. 

An Expository documentary is when a documentary speaks to the audience with the purpose to express a point of view or an opinion The documentaries are persuasive in the sense they are trying to convince the viewer to think, agree or believe with a certain thing or idea. They often contain footage, interviews and pictures that are exclusive to the documentary. 

Observational documentaries are sometimes referred to as 'Fly on the wall' documentaries because there is no intervention by any of the film crew and there are usually no interviews with any of the participants, however there is narration. The main aim of observational documentaries is to explore an intimacy that no other type of documentary can as none of the participants are being disturbed. 

An Interactive documentary is the complete opposite of Observational. It is where the director and the film crew take part in the documentary with the intended purpose to get the exact view and angle they want to get. An example of Interactive documentaries is the BBC3 series 'Stacey Dooley Investigates' in watch the host (Stacey) travels around the world with her crew to explore and interview people in areas where child abuse is an apparent problem. In the December of 2016, Stacey was stopped by police in Tokyo whilst filming 'Young Sex For Sale in Japan' which was a documentary about the sexual exploitation of underage children in Japan. She was held by police for two hours after initially being confronted by two men who demanded "no movies"

Reflexive Documentaries are where the film maker acknowledges their presence in front of the camera and the provide a narrative for the documentary. This style of documentary can be sometimes associated with experimental documentaries. This is where the viewer is just as interested in how the film is made as well as the actual documentary content. An example of this is the documentaries made by Louis Theroux. There is a running theme through all of his documentaries of being detached and partially distant, although there are moments where he does get involved. For example, the 'Under the Knife' episode in which Louis explores why plastic surgery is such a big thing in America, by the end he decides to get liposuction himself. In this style of documentary, there is an emphasis on the encounter between film maker and viewer rather than film maker and subject.

A Performative Documentary is the direct opposite of the Observational as it emphasizes the film makers own involvement with the subject. During this style, the film maker gives a strong ' what it is like to be there' perspective on the world where the filmmaker becomes a personal guide throughout the documentary. In the 1989 documentary 'Tongues Untied' the African-American filmmaker Marlon Riggs combines re-enactments, actuality and his personal accounts to shine a light on the black gay American identity.