What is Documentary?

Today was the initial introduction to the course. We began by delving into the meaning of documentary itself, something which, being a primarily fictional filmmaker, I’d never given much thought.  After a group discussion, it became clear to me that there are a lot of common misconceptions about what documentary really is. Up until this point, I’ve always considered it to mean ‘non fiction film’ – in other words, any film without a fictional narrative.

But now that I know that documentary always involves people. Rather than just informing the audience on a particular subject, a documentary holds up a mirror to different parts of society, telling the stories of human beings in an objective way. Therefore, shows like Blue Planet, where the subjects are animals, aren’t really documentaries at all.

In narrative fiction, the subject is also people, but there seems to be more of a focus on relationships and individual feelings. With documentary, on the other hand, there’s much more of a focus on facts and specific information. I can see how not following this rule when making a documentary could lead to bias and compromise the integrity of your finished film.