Documentaries (motion picture genre)

Films that deal directly with the fact and realty of a situation instead of a fictional version of reality. These films are concerned with actual people, places, and events, not actors or sets. The term documentary is derived from the French word documentaire, which means travelogue, given by French film maker John Grierson. One of the first well known documentaries was 'Nanook of the North" (1922) about the life of the Inuit. The two most significant developments in the documentary have been cinéma verité in Films that deal directly with the fact and realty of a situation instead of a fictional version of reality. These films are concerned with actual people, places, and events, not actors or sets. The term documentary is derived from the French word "documentaire," which means travelogue, given by French film maker John Grierson. One of the first well known documentaries was "Nanook of the North" about the life of the Inuit. The two most significant developments in the documentary have been cinema verite in France, and direct cinema in the US. Most of these were influenced by television news and the lightweight portable cameras which allowed the filmmaker to get closer to his subject. By the 1970s and 1980s, the films of Errol Morris, made the documentary more elaborate, cutting it with clips of cartons and using multiple lens cameras.