#3 Types of Documentaries

We learned about documentaries and their different types. Let me start by giving a general idea about what a documentary is. A documentary is a form of a film or television that provides an honest report of a particular subject. In my wordings, documentaries further educate people about topics that are not easily available for educational or learning purposes. I have also made a documentary on the slum areas of Lahore, I will talk about my documentary in detail under a seperate title. For now, there are 6 different types of documentaries: 

 1. Poetic Documentary: Poetic Documentary is a documentary which uses techniques to enlighten a specific focus while using a narrative structure. 

The poetic documentary that I watched was by Thom Andersen and it is about a miniature city symphony exposing Los Angeles' gentrification and neglect through a cheeky montage of static images set against the region's musical history. The film takes its cue from Richard Berry's song "Get Out of the Car", prompting an exploratory walk about Los Angeles.

2. Observational Documentary: is a type of a documentary which tends to show more through different observational clips. 

The observational documentary that I watched is called Public Housing which is directed by Frederick Wiseman. It is mainly filmed to show the wells housing project in the south side of Chicago. It mainly focuses on the observational clips and how to use the different angles while shooting an observational documentary.

 

 

3. Performative Documentary: This type of documentary focuses on the editor and the videographers point of view and the subjects they have in mind. 

The performative documentary that I watched was supersize me, which is directed by Morgan Spurlock who is one of my favourite directors. It's about a social experiment in fast food gastronomy that sees him attempting to live on food from McDonalds for an entire month. In the process his weight booms up, his energy levels reduce and he experiences all sorts of unexpected side effects. 

4. Expository Documentary: is a documentary which is set on a specific view or direction. 

The expository documentary that I watched is The dust bowl it chronicles the worst man-made ecological disaster in American history, in which the frenzied wheat boom of the "Great Plow-Up," followed by a decade-long drought during the 1930s nearly swept away the breadbasket of the nation. Vivid interviews with twenty-six survivors of those hard times, combined with dramatic photographs and seldom seen movie footage, bring to life stories of incredible human suffering and equally incredible human perseverance. It focused on one specific view that was the "Great plow up" that's how we know it is an expository documentary. 

 5. Reflexive Documentary: is a documentary that focuses on the relationship between the filmmaker and the audience, pushing viewers to reflect on their perceptions and reanalyse their notions of truth. 

I watched "Man with a movie camera" I found the link to it after searching almost every online site that buffered movies but it was hard because it was made in 1929. The whole movie has been shot in black and white. it is part documentary and part cinematic art, this film follows a city in the 1920's Soviet Union throughout the day, from morning to night. It is directed by Dziga Vertov. It showed me different complex and innovative camera shots as well as different transitions and how he merged everything to make it look more cinematic. 

 6. Participatory Documentary: Participatory documentary can be considered the opposite of observational, the filmmaker appears as an obviously active participant in the film, appearing on camera and interacting with the subject matter. 

The documentary that I watched for this respective genre was King Corn as I had watched it before as well. It is directed by Aaron Woolf and Ian Chenne. Its about two college graduates who travel to Iowa to investigate the role that corn plays in an increasingly complicated American food industry.