WHAT IS SPECIAL ABOUT DOCUMENTARY FILM?

Documentary deals with fact, not fiction. Most importantly, documentaries delve into a non-fictional world with real events, real issues, real conflict, real people and real emotions. Everything seen and heard on screen is grounded in accuracy and has no element of fiction.

Documentary is flexible. Unlike fictional films, documentaries have no fixed

visual and conceptual guidelines per say. It’s impossible to concretize events or

decide one way or the other about how the film will turn out eventually. There are

fewer ‘rules’ to be followed, which reflects the fact that there are few rules in the

real world as well. This makes it more challenging but infinitely more exciting.

Documentary inspires movement and action. At the very heart of documentary, there is an issue and a message at hand. The passing on of this message to the audience is usually the reason that the film was made in the first place. Documentaries have long been used as an instrument to inspire change in their audience, be it social change or inner change.

Documentary involves less control. Unlike fiction films, documentaries must be

shot in the real world and show real events happening. Often, the filmmaker is

unable to control the event he is shooting as well as the circumstances

surrounding the event. It’s difficult to think about lighting when in the middle of a

sniper shootout! There is less control over the subject in documentary; however

this unmodified, improvised element is often the very charm of non-fiction films.

Documentary subject is paramount. Documentaries are inherently bound to their subject matter. Since their purpose is so issue-specific and their circumstances are non-fictional, the subject is the most important aspect of documentary films and is given precedence over other aspects, for example: entertainment value. In fact, until recently filmmakers scoffed at the idea of a documentary being entertaining. This attitude has, of course, changed now but subject still remains the dominant element.

Credibility is key in Documentary. The emergence of the documentary as a

recognised cinematic genre in the 1920’s inherited the trust of the audience in the

veracity of the image as an authentic representation of the real. Today, we are

much more skeptical, even with documentaries. Audience trust, once lost is gone

forever so a documentary, in this day and age, must always provide credible

information and sources to put a suspicious audience at ease.

Form is more important than formula. There are no recipes in documentary

films. Every subject and issue is specific and is showcased on film in its own

appropriate manner. Form and the layout in which a subject is showcased in a

film are important as they add value to the film, but there is no one tried and

tested way to do this.

(source: Trisha Das, How to write a doumentary script)

When We Were Kings (Leon Gast, 1996, USA)