Documentary Forms

Introduction

A documentary is a factual programme which gives us information about a certain topic or subject. There are different types of documentaries, from expository, observational, interactive, reflexive and performative. They all do the same thing, yet in very different ways.

Expository documentaries

For an expository documentary, key features include the fact that these documentaries are made to expose a person or a topic, with a usual voiceover explaining what’s going on in detail about the case at hand.

An example I found of this was a documentary going over a case back in 1968, known as “The Mary Bell Case”, which talks about the case of a child murderer. Not as in the sense of a grown adult who killed children, but the sense of a child killing others. The main voiceovers are to do with interviewees who agreed to be interviewed over the case of Mary Bell and of the narrator who explains certain things at key parts. The documentary itself is mainly composed of photographs and old pieces of film to illustrate the fact about Mary Bell’s case, alongside the interviews with said people in question. It’s an example of expository documentary, since it’s mainly filled with voiceovers and such. It doesn’t really observe too much and really uses historical records mainly for its filming.

Observational documentaries

An observational documentary is quite different from an expository documentary. Unlike where you have voiceovers and interviews from the subjects, the film maker is practically uninvolved with anything that their subjects are doing. So they just film them as they are, with no interference made by them.

For an example of this type of documentary is a documentary called “Rough Aunties” by the director Kim Longinotto, released back in 2008. This is about a group of women in South Africa fighting against the rampant sexual abuse of poverty-stricken children. Of course, these stories are rather bleak, however there is still hope, colour, song and uplifting moments which contrast to the despair.

Interactive documentaries

Interactive documentaries are the complete opposite to an observational documentary. Whilst observational documentaries are where the film maker stay completely out of the way and just watch as the things play out, interactive documentaries are where the film maker becomes directly involved with the events or subjects that are being filmed.

An example of an interactive documentary would be one of the Louis Theroux documentaries, known as “Louis Theroux: Twilight of the Porn Stars”, made back in 2012. This goes into depth about the porn industry and the stresses and work that people who work within it go through. It mainly consists of interviews and off filming of certain events, though it doesn’t show anything too explicit.

Reflexive documentaries

For a reflexive documentary, it really focuses on how the documentary is filmed rather than on the subjects that they are filming about. So, reflexive documentaries are more focused on how they are filmed and made, challenging the documentary’s apparent skill to reveal the “truth”.

An example of such a documentary would be of “Driving Me Crazy”, where it clearly shows the director, Nick Broomfield, in front of the camera with his film crew and most of the documentary itself is about the making of the film, more than the actual content, so it is a very good example of a reflexive documentary.

Performative documentaries

A performative documentary is quite different from all other documentaries, since they basically explore emotional and subjective aspects of a documentary and also addresses the audience emotionally. Basically, this form is more emotional instead of a normal style of documentaries.

An example of such a documentary would be the documentary of “Tongues United”, which is a documentary all about a black gay man who wants equality for all gays, not just of himself. This is a powerful documentary, since it irks some really big emotions from the audience and also some certain questions.