1. Documentary Films strictly speaking, are non-fictional, "slice of life" factual works of art - and sometimes
known as cinema verite. For many years, as films became more narrative-based, documentaries branched out and
took many forms since their early beginnings - some of which have been termed propagandistic or non-objective.
Documentary films have comprised a very broad and diverse category of films. Examples of documentary forms
include the following:
'biographical' films about a living or dead person (Madonna, John Lennon, Muhammad Ali - When We
Were Kings (1996), Robert Crumb, Stephen Hawking in A Brief History of Time (1992), or Glenn Gould)
a well-known event (Waco, Texas incident, the Holocaust, the Shackleton expedition to the Antarctic)
a concert or rock festival (Woodstock or Altamont rock concerts (Woodstock (1970) and Gimme Shelter
(1970)), The Song Remains the Same (1976),Stop Making Sense (1984), Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991))
a comedy show (Richard Pryor or Eddie Murphy shows)
a live performance (Cuban musicians as in Buena Vista Social Club (1998), or the stage show Cirque du
Soleil-Journey of Man (2000))
a sociological or ethnographic examination following the lives of individuals over a period of time (e.g.,
Michael Apted's series of films: 28 Up (1984), 35 Up (1992) and 42 Up (1999), or Steve James' Hoop
Dreams (1994))
an expose including interviews (e.g., Michael Moore's social concerns films)
a sports documentary (extreme sports, such as Extreme (1999) or To the Limit (1989), or surfing, such as
in The Endless Summer (1966))
a compilation film of collected footage from government sources
a 'making of' film (such as the one regarding the filming of Apocalypse Now (1979), or Fitzcarraldo (1982))
an examination of a specific subject area (e.g., nature- or science-related themes, or historical surveys,
such as The Civil War, Jazz, Baseball, or World War II, etc.)
spoof documentaries, termed 'mockumentaries' (such as This is Spinal Tap (1984), Zelig (1983), and Best in
Show (2000))

2. The Earliest Documentaries
• Originally, the earliest documentaries in the
US and France were either short newsreels,
instructional pictures, records of current
events, or travelogues (termed actualities)
without any creative story-telling, narrative, or
staging. The first attempts at film-making, by
the Lumiere Brothers and others, were literal
documentaries, e.g., a train entering a station,
factory workers leaving a plant, etc.

3. Lumiere Brothers
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nj0vEO4
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4. Flaherty
• The first official documentary or non-fiction narrative film was
Robert Flaherty's Nanook of the North (1922), an ethnographic
look at the harsh life of Canadian Inuit Eskimos living in the Arctic,
although some of the film's scenes of obsolete customs were
staged. Flaherty, often regarded as the "Father of the Documentary
Film," also made the landmark film Moana (1926) about Samoan
Pacific islanders, although it was less successful. [The term
'documentary' was first used in a review of Flaherty's 1926 film.] His
first sound documentary feature film was Man of Aran (1934),
regarding the rugged Aran islanders/fishermen located west of
Ireland's Galway Bay. Flaherty's fourth (and last) major feature
documentary was his most controversial, Louisiana Story (1948),
filmed on location in
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW6d6B_R2nM

5. Depression era
• Pare Lorentz' The Plow that Broke the Plains (1936)
documented the deprivations and suffering of the
Depression-Era Dust Bowl farmers. The film was subsidized
by one of President Roosevelt's New Deal organizations.
Lorentz' follow-up film was The River (1937), arguing that
the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) aided ecological
efforts in the area. Years later, Philippe Mora's Brother Can
You Spare a Dime? (1975) compiled newsreel footage, film
clips and music from the 1930s to capture the cultural and
historical forces that existed during the decade. Michael
Uys' and Lexy Lovell's Riding the Rails (1997) presented
stories of train-hopping by Depression-era hobos,
accompanied by Woody Guthrie's folk songs.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQCwhjWNcH8

6. Cities
City symphony – Walter Rutman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ej84nN1W
cE
Man with a movie camera
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iey9YIbra2U

7. The war years
• Documentaries during the Great War and during WWII
were often propagandistic. Innovative German film-maker
Leni Riefenstahl's pioneering masterwork epic Triumph of
the Will (1935, Germ.) was explicitly propagandistic yet
historical in its spectacular yet horrifying documentation of
the Nazi Party Congress rally in Nuremberg in 1934. It was a
revolutionary film combining superb cinematography and
editing of Third Reich propaganda. She also documented
the 1936 Berlin Olympics in the stunning film Olympia
(1938, Germ.) - with graceful and beautiful images of
'Aryan' athletes in competition. To respond to the Nazi
propaganda, Frank Capra was commissioned by the US War
Department to direct seven films in a Why We Fight (1943)
series of narrated WWII newsreel-style films.

8. War years
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHs2coAzLJ8
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcOFRonSqE
E
• Why we fight
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBtdTiHsQqI
• March of times
• http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,3206
8,32007091001_1920816,00.html

9. Post war
• Sorrow and the pity
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeO89EgD
WrM
• Night and fog
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8qTFuMc
DLs

10. John Grieson
• Invented the title documentary
• Produced film for Britain
– NIGHT MAIL
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkLoDg7e_ns
– EVERY DAY EXCEPT XMASS
– https://vimeo.com/37249758

11. Direct cinema
• National film board of canada
• Robert Drew
• Primary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTqMmA9
bycM
• Crisis behind a presidential commitment

12. Maysles Borthers
Salesman
http://www.criterion.com/films/663-salesman
Grey gardens
Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI62e0fRieo
Scene
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuDMkPq97MA
Gimme shelter
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twm0ghxcZVg

13. D A Pennybaker
• Don’t look back
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY4HtQ-
XJQE

14. Frederick Wiseman
• Titicut follys
• https://vimeo.com/22027387
• High school
• https://vimeo.com/33106329

15. Cinema verite
• Jean Rouch
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpxVtFQg
S4o

16. BARBRA KOPPLE
• HARLAN COUNTY USA
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8dfzWdK
WZg

17. Eroll Morris
• Thin blue line
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUJfrW1h
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