intro to documentary - onnolee

We learned about documentary in my French cinema class as it pertains to the new wave, but focused more on aesthetic rather than how it related to other categories of documentary. In the terms of the article, we learned about poetic documentary, where plot isn't stretched and takes back seat to the mood of the film. In Cocteau's Le Testament d'Orphee, the filming style is treated as a documentary, where chracters (most notably Orpheus himself) occasionally speak directly to the camera. While many of these films also ended up with a fair amount of plot, utilization of the documentary was incredibly important for defining that particular facet of French cinema.

In a more modern sense, documentary is still changing the media we consume, especially when it comes to television. Shows like The Office and Parks and Recreation are utilizing a documentary format (and are incredibly successful for it), and using an unexpected style for an established kind of story have made those two shows in particular stand out. There are a whole lot of other shows that use a documentary format, most notably "reality" shows, but in the case of those documentary is expected - which I personally think is so they can make it seem more "true" since most people associate documentary with some notion of 'this is the truth.'

Also in the more modern sense, expository documentary itself is also changing. One of the biggest means for documentaries to be seen, PBS stations, are promoting more traditional drama-based shows (coughcoughDowntonAbbeycough) to the detriment of documentary filmmakers, even for their highly successful Frontline series, and as a result modern expository documentarians have to compete even more for airtime.