|
 "In
popular myth, the word 'documentary' was coined by
Scottish documentarian
John Grierson
in his review of
Robert Flaherty's
film
Moana
(1926), published in the
New York Sun
on 8 February 1926, written by "The Moviegoer" (a
pen name for Grierson). Grierson's principles of
documentary were that cinema's potential for
observing life could be exploited in a new art form;
that the "original" actor and "original" scene are
better guides than their fiction counterparts to
interpreting the modern world; and that materials
"thus taken from the raw" can be more real than the
acted article. In this regard, Grierson's views
align with Vertov's conterierson's definition of
documentary as "creative treatment of actuality" has
gained some acceptance, though it presents
philosophical questions about documentaries
containing stagings and reenactments.
In his essays, Soviet film-maker
Dziga Vertov
argued for presenting "life as it is" (that is, life
filmed surreptitiously) and "life caught unawares"
(life provoked or surprised by the camera). The
American film critic
Pare Lorentz
defines a documentary film as "a
factual
film
which is dramatic." Others further state that a
documentary stands out from the other types of
non-fiction films for providing an opinion, and a
specific message, along with the facts it presents.
Documentary
Practice
is the complex process of creating documentary
projects. It refers to what people do with media
devices, content, form, and production strategies in
order to address the creative, ethical, and
conceptual problems and choices that arise as they
make documentaries.
There are clear
connections in terms of practice with magazine and
newspaper feature-writing and indeed to non-fiction
literature. Many of the generic forms of
documentary, for example the biopic or profile; or
the observational piece. These generic forms are
explored on the University of Winchester Journalism
Department 'features web' where 'long form
journalism' is classified by genre or content,
rather than in terms of production as film, radio or
'print'" . Source:
Wikipedia |
