documentary

Documentary
Originally Documentary films are known as "non-fictional, slices of life factual works of art." (Filmgenre 2006) Documentaries are also known to as cinema verite, and ever since their early beginnings, documentaries have been taking many forms which to some scholars have been coined "propgandistic" or "non-objective." (Wikipedia 2006) Initially, the French employed the term "documentary" in referring to any form of non-fiction medium even including travelogues and instructional videos. In essence, the earliest moving pictures were known to be of documentary. There were single shots, moments captured on film; whether of a train entering a station, a boat docking, or a factory of people getting off work. Early film (pre-1900) was dominated by the novelty of showing an event. These short films were called "actuality" films (Wikipedia 2006) Reason for this was that, minimal storytelling actually happened because of the technological limitations. Cameras could hold only small amounts of film, and so the first films were about a minute or even less. It is important to note that the earliest form of films were actually created by the [|Lumiere Brothers].


 * The Earliest Documentaries:**

It is important to note that the earliest documentaries were very short newsreels, instructional pictures, records of events, or travelogues as previously mentioned. None of these had creative storytelling. In actuality, 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.

Modern documentaries
The shift from earlier documentaries to modern ones has much been attributed to modern lightweight digital video cameras and computer-based editing have greatly aided documentary makers (documentaryfilms 2000). Correspondingly, documentaries have become increasingly successful in theatrical releases with films such as Super Size Me, Farenheit 9/11, and the most recent release, An Inconvenient Truth. In comparison to actual dramatic narrative films, documentaries are known to have much of a lower budget. This is one of the reasons why film companies have been flocking and attracted to the documentary film because of its low budget yet high profits. For example, Farenheit 9/11 set a new record for profits earned in a documentary, earning more than US$228 million in ticket sales and selling more than 3 million DVDs!! (Filmgenre 2006) It is imperative to mention that the actual nature of documentary has transitioned and shifted in the past 2 decades from the actual [|cinema verite] tradtion. Films like "The Thin Blue Line actually incorporated stylized re-enactments. It has raised controversial debate over recent documentary films, that much of the content is "director controlled." One can argue that the commercial success of the documentaries like Farenheit 9/11 may owe something to this narrative shift in the documentary form, leading some critics to question whether such films can truly be called documentaries.

The recent success of the documentary genre, and the breakthrough of DVD's has made documentaries financially viable even without a cinema release. There are now around thirty quality feature-length documentaries on notable photographers, for instance, a situation that would have seemed incredible twenty years ago (Wikipedia 2006) It is interesting to note that recent documentaries have some overlap with other forms of television due to the criticism it has been recieving that documentary is "director controlled" or is biased or fictional, even staged. There are even documentary films that criticize how other documentary films were created and produced. Usually made for promotional purposes, it is usually closer to an advertisement than to classical documentary.

__**The "documentary film"**__ __**"FARENHEIT 9/11"**__ By: Michael Moore media type="google" key="6387831398516462334&q=farenheit+911"
 * Earlier Documentary Films:**Nanook of the North (1922) Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life (1925) Moana (1926) Berlin: Symphony of a Big City (1927, Ger.) Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness (1927) October (Oktyabr)/10 Days That Shook the World (1928, USSR) Drifters (1929, UK) Finnis Terrae (1929, Fr.) The Man with a Movie Camera (1929, USSR) Las Hurdes (aka Land Without Bread) (1932, Sp.) Man of Aran (1934) Triumph of the Will (1934, Ger.) The Plow That Broke the Plains (1936) The River (1937) The Spanish Earth (1937) Olympia (1938, Ger.) City (1939) Prelude to War (1942) Desert Victory (1943, US/UK) The Memphis Belle (1944) Louisiana Story (1948) The Living Desert (1953) Night and Fog (1955, Fr.) The Silent World (aka Le Monde du Silence) (1956, Fr/It.)


 * Recent Documentary Films:**Four Days in November (1964) The Eleanor Roosevelt Story (1965) The Endless Summer (1966) Don't Look Back (1967) Titicut Follies (1967) High School (1968) Monterey Pop (1968) Vietnam: In the Year of the Pig (1968) Why Man Creates (1968) Salesman (1969) Gimme Shelter (1970) Woodstock - 3 Days of Peace & Music (1970) The Hellstrom Chronicle (1971) The Sorrow and the Pity (1971) Hearts and Minds (1974) That's Entertainment! (1974) Brother Can You Spare a Dime? (1975) Grey Gardens (1976) Harlan County, USA (1976) The Song Remains the Same (1976) The Children of Theatre Street (1977) Gates of Heaven (1978) The Last Waltz (1978) Scared Straight! (1978) From Mao to Mozart - Isaac Stern in China (1979) Say Amen, Somebody (1980) The Decline of Western Civilization (1981) Vernon, Florida (1981) The Atomic Cafe (1982) Burden of Dreams (1982) Stop Making Sense (1984) The Times of Harvey Milk (1984) 28 Up (1984, UK) Shoah (1985) Sherman's March (1986) Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie (1988) Let's Get Lost (1988) The Thin Blue Line (1988) Comic Book Confidential (1989) Roger & Me (1989) American Dream (1990) The Civil War: A Film by Ken Burns (1990) Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991) Paris is Burning (1991) Black Harvest (1992, Aust.) A Brief History of Time (1992) Brother's Keeper (1992) 35 Up (1992) Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography (1992) It's All True (1993) Time Indefinite (1993) Twist (1993) Crumb (1994) Hoop Dreams (1994) The Celluloid Closet (1995) Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996) When We Were Kings (1996) The Big One (1997) Fast, Cheap & Out of Control (1997) 4 Little Girls (1997) Hands on a Hard Body (1997) Riding the Rails (1997) Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist (1997) Six O'Clock News (1997) Waco: The Rules of Engagement (1997) Wild Man Blues (1997) Buena Vista Social Club (1998) The Farm: Life Inside Angola Prison (1998) American Movie (1999) 42 Up (1999) Grass (1999) The Last Cigarette (1999) Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition (2000, UK/US) Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. (2000) Fidel: The Untold Story (2001) Bowling for Columbine (2002) Capturing the Friedmans (2002) The Kid Stays in the Picture (2002) Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) Super Size Me (2004) No Direction Home (2005) An Inconvenient Truth (2006)

Documentary film list care of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_film

Sources; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_film www.documentaryfilms.net http://www.filmsite.org/genres.html