The history of documentary film began in 1895 with the Lumiere brothers creating the first documentary by capturing unedited clips of real life. Major developments included Robert Flaherty's 1922 film Nanook of the North, which was the first to use creative interpretation of reality. In the 1930s, John Grierson pioneered the poetic-realistic style with films like Nightmail. The 1950s-60s saw the direct cinema movement aim to present events directly and unmediated, influenced by lightweight cameras. Modern social issue documentaries still draw from these traditions, though some filmmakers now use documentary techniques to intentionally mislead audiences in mockumentaries.

1. History of Documentary

2. The Lumiere brothers made
the first ever documentary in
1895. They made and used a
camera that could hold only 50
feet of film stock. Their short
unedited clips captured the
life around them. They were
named ‘Actualities’.

3. The most famous
documentary was ‘Un Train
Arrivee’ made in 1895. This
documentary featured a
train pulling into a station.
However, audiences were
shocked by seeing moving
images for the first time,
this being the reason why it
was so famous.

4. The more popular documentary format arose
with ‘Nanook of The North’ made by Robert
Flaherty in 1922. The word ‘documentary’ was
founded by John Grierson, and it was used to
describe this type of documentary. Nanook was
the first factual film, and was the first to use
what Grierson described as ‘The Creative
Interpretation of Reality’.
Flaherty planned most of the scenes, therefore
the documentary was more exciting and
dramatic for the audience.

5. Grierson became the head the GPO film unit in
England in the 1930s and was a major exponent of
‘poetic-realistic’ approaches within documentaries.
Nightmail (1936) began as a film about the mail train
from London to Edinburgh.
The filming and editing emphasised the poetic
elements of film form: movement, rhythm, light and
sound. Critics of Grierson accused him of neglecting
the social and political issues in his films, being in
favour of a more modernist approach that celebrated
machinery more than human beings.

6. Major documentaries appeared again in the
1950s and 60s. Direct Cinema arose, this
was a movement in the United States
aimed to present social and political issues
in a direct and unmediated way, giving the
perspective that events were recorded
exactly as they happened without the
involvement of the film-maker. The
development of light-weight film cameras
using smaller film stock (16mm as opposed
to 35mm film) allowed cameras to be
shoulder mounted and be used in a mobile
matter. Key names in this movement are
The Mayles Brothers, Pennebaker and Fred
Wiseman.

7. The modern social issue
documentaries such as Supersize Me
and Bowling for Columbine has its
place in direct cinema. The film-
maker usually has a political or
social agenda that presents the
events as ‘real’ as they can be, even
though they are in full control of the
editing process.

8. A similar movement called ‘Cinema Verite’ (Cinema Truth) was
on the radar. ‘Cinema Verite’ is a minimalist style of film
making that the viewer is given a direct view of what is
happening in front of the camera without any artificial parts
which was usually incorporated in the film-making process.
‘Cinema Verite’ favours direct sound, location filming , natural
lighting and hand-held cameras.

9. Jean Rouch was an
important documentarian in
the 1960s. However,
‘Cinema Verite’ and the
techniques have been used
by drama-makers such as
Ken Loach, following the
term ‘drama documentary’
used to describe films like
‘Cathy Come Home’

10. The use of ‘Cinema Verite’ techniques make a film seem more
realistic and honest to an audience. Recently, film-makers use
documentary codes and conventions to fool audiences into
thinking a programme or film is factual, however it is not. This
form of film-making is known as a ‘Mockumentary’.

11. Mockumentaries usually demonstrate how
codes and conventions can be faked, they
cause the viewer to consider why the
audience place fait in documentaries and
rely on them as form of information.