Genre Analysis and Themes.

Who?

John Grierson- Came up with the term ‘Documentary’ -1928.

The purpose of documentaries is to document something that actually happened. It can be shown using real footage or a reconstruction. It can use a narrators voice over to anchor the meaning or rely on the participants themselves with perhaps an occasional interjection by the narrator.

Documentaries are not just about facts instead facts can be used to create socially critical arguements, inviting the audience to draw their own conclusions.

Central to documentaries are that they focus on and question actual people and events often in a social context placing the audience in a position to form an opinion about who or what we are seeing.