Documentary Analysis

There are six diferrent types of documentaries;

• Poetic Documentaries- They first came around in the 1920's. The poetic mode organized images of the material world in terms of time and space. People appeared in these films as entities that are found in the material world. The 'real world; was broken up into fragments and aesthetically reconstituted using film form.
• Expository Documentaries-This type of documentary hardly uses images as it isnt the most important thing. These films try to persuade the viewer by using strong voice over clips, (may use a male voice so it sounds objective.) These commentaries use voiceovers or titles proposing a strong argument and point of view.
• Observational Documentaries- These first appeared in the 1960's, they had technological developments so they could include lightweight cameras and portable sound recording for synchronized sounds. These films aimed at individual human character in ordinary life situations.
• Participatory Documentaries- This type of film made pushed away the narrator making them apart of the film seeing how the situation was affecrted or altered by their prescense however, they still have potential power and control of events.
• Reflexive Documentaries- This type of documentary questions the authencity of documentary in general. It is the most self-concious  and is highly skeptical of realism. It may use stratergies to jar the viewer in, to show what we are seeing and how we see it.
• Performative Documentaries- These documentaries are strongly emotional, personal, unconventional and maybe poetic. It may include a list of events designed to make us experience what it might be like for us to posses a certain specific perspective on the world that is not our own. The sub-genre may also aim at specific groups to 'speak about themselves.'