The History of Documentaries

A documentary is a film used to educate and inform audiences on an issue or topic in order
to create awareness around this subject. The first recorded mention of the genre was
written in 1898 by Bolesaw Matuszewski, a polish writer and filmmaker although the term
documentary was first used in 1926 by pioneering Scottish born film maker John Grierson
with the definition being to describe a non-fiction film. Despite this being the first time the
term was heard, documentaries have been around for more than a 120 years, these were
ways of catching the moment in a simple way and still are to this day. The 20-40’s was
considered the Golden age and documentaries followed this as huge productions which
contained sound and special effects which had a massive impact on film and changed this
forever. This is where documentaries began to embrace romanticism as well as the creation
of one of the most famous documentaries ever. This is Nanook of the North by Robert J.
Flaherty a silent production created in 1922 which follows Nanook and his family who live in
the Arctic Circle. This documentary had extreme importance to the medium as it started the
rapid development of documentary filmmaking as it was the first film to successfully
combine documentary footage with art of storytelling in cinema. This documentary was a
huge sensation and influenced the whole movement and still is to this current day. Even
though this documentary was a huge sensation there were still questions surrounding this
asking whether the productions was completely reliability as well as raw. According to CBS
News.com , they claimed that filmmaker Robert Flaherty had staged several scenes as well
as got several facts incorrect.

The next big step in documentary film-making was John Griersons experimental
documentary created in 1934 called Granton Thrawler which depicts the life of fishermen
on a boat. This production once again is silent and contains no dialogue. John Grierson is
seen as the God-father of documentary who provoked the first big impact non-fiction films.
This silent production displays life on a crew ship and uses relavant footage to the topic and
depicts the harsh life that crews had to live in order to keep their occupation. The reason
this film is so relavant to the documentary movement is because it has raw archive footage
which is all real and depicts a story. This production is educational for viewers as it allows us
to understand how difficult some people’s lives are. This film is shot in black and white as
well as having no narration. The sound is extremely faint which is possibly due to the time it
was shot (1934) which is possibly to do with them having much more heavy duty cameras
that produced more sound therefore they chose to shoot this in silent instead.

When World War 2 began as well as prior to this documentaries were published all
throughout this as well as during the cold war. These were created in order to persuade
audiences on a government’s political views and ideas. These were often used as
propaganda to convince the public on an idea. This was used by groups such as the US, USSR
and the Nazi’s. These political films thrived and were some of the first that wanted to
expose and gain an audience in order to have groups who backed there points. During this
time there were several big productions that had an impact on society such as Leni
Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will and Why We Fight by Frank Capra due to their political
outlooks.

Documentaries were also used once again as propaganda throughout the 1960’s and 1970’s.
This were also used once again for political agendas against neocolonialism and capitalism in
South American countries such as Quebec. Throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s Cinema Verite
(Cinema of the Truth) had massive technological advancements, the ability to have faster
film stock this needed less light for exposure making this a much easier piece of equipment
to use. Another big technological advancement was the portable 16mm cameras which had
a crystal sync which allowed the individual using this to record sound independently from
footage to which then synchronize this in post-production.
The early 1980’s had become a great time to be a film maker as the development of
technology began speed up, as film stock was now quiet cheap therefore video formatting
was more frequent with one and two inch video tapes as well as DV format and digicam.
In the 1980’s and 1990’s documentaries became to take off rapidly although during this
time it was extremely difficult to gain project funding in order to create these productions.
This is because documentaries had a reputation for being dry and academic making this
quite hard as they could not be marketed. They had over 80 years gained a strong
reputation of being named cinematic spinach as these productions were educational
therefore good for you. Over the last decade documentaries are beginning to gain traction,
as of 1991 IMDB had a listing of 1,860 documentary titles on their website.
Documentaries had never been seen as a high threat until 1990’s, this is due to them not
having the budget nor the equipment to actually be a threat compared to films which
contained a narrative, this is because documentaries weren’t advertised as much therefore
weren’t in the public eye and being noticed. The 1990’s saw an incredible breakthrough
with editing software which was becoming available as well as more popular to film makers
as these non-linear editing software allowed film makers to evolve the whole production
process as film makers were now able to put films together more effectively as before they
had to do this by hand.

It’s now present day and John Grierson’s definition of the term documentary has evolved for
the better with new technology arising such as much smarter post production programs as
well as much more versatile, reliable and lighter cameras which can record both sound and
footage in sync. This has been very beneficial for the film industry as it means there has
been a much bigger incline in how many documentaries are being released. This is because
individuals now have the ability to go out anywhere with a camera and record a
documentary. These are also low budget productions making them a very effective way for
people to break through into the media industry. Documentaries have now replaced
standard journalism and overall newspapers as a whole which would traditionally focus on
one story or issue throughout a series of prints. This is possibly due to documentaries being
more visually appealing to audiences as well as tackling this story or issue in a much more
exciting way.
An example of this is Michael Moore’s documentary on the tragic events of 9/11, this
documentary was called Fahrenheit 9/11 which set a world record for documentaries as the
highest grossing documentary which sold more amounts of copies of DVD’s than any other
film about at the time. The documentary made more than $200 million and still is the
highest grossing documentary to this day. This production was especially big in the United
States as it investigated the unfortunate events to post 9/11 and how the president at the
time (George Bush) used this as an excuse to go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan. This
production was focused on educating and exposing the US government for their actions
which highly stood out to the country at the time.
Michael Moore has done this on other occasions with documentaries such as Bowling for
Columbine which focused on the issue of the rising school shootings in the United States
hence the name which refers the Columbine massacre which happened at a high school in
the US. This documentary’s purpose was to expose big leading supermarket companies in
the US who sold guns as well as live ammunition. Michael Moore was completely successful
with this production as he exposed their sales of these items which were the best selling
items in the store. This documentary was effective as it prompted these big supermarkets to
stop selling live ammunition in order for this to benefit the decline of mass school shootings.
As of 2008 marked a turning point for documentary film makers as new technology that
would benefit them began to arise. An example of this was the Canon 5D mark II which was
originally first used in the award winning documentary Hell and Back which focused on the
escalating war in Afghanistan. This camera became increasingly popular amongst
documentary filmmakers as it had a positive reputation for being low priced, with
“unprecedented image quality” for the time it was made at as well as being a single lens
reflex camera. Before this films/documentaries were shot on unreliable 35 mm cameras
which required a ton of paraphernalia in order to record a successful film. This would be
heavy which these would be shaky, audiences liked this though as they often thought this
conveyed the truth more.
The internet has benefited documentaries massively as it has allowed content to be digitally
distributed which has now fuelled a new outlook of how content is present and targeted at
audiences. This has inspired young filmmakers to go out and film their own productions
which they now have the ability to do anytime they want as they have access to all the
equipment needed to carry this out such as hand held camera, editing software, lighting and
sound equipment. This has caused a mass influx of documentaries being created now
making them as superior as films when breaking the box office and movie records in
general. An example of this is Netflix’s Knock Down the House which in theory made $10
million, others that have done this include RGB which made $14 million and made the list
for the 25 most highest grossing documentaries of all time.
In conclusion I have learned how much documentaries have developed as well as how much
technology has had an impact on the its development. This is because now we now have
access to equipment that allows us to make high quality productions especially the younger
generation who are a lot more familiar with the newer technology, equipment such as
digital cameras is now also a lot lighter, smaller and versatile and higher in quality allowing
us to carry these without any second though to it. This has expanded the potential for what
documentaries can do as this has made the whole filming process a lot more simple and
accessible for individuals. The amount of ideas for documentary filmmakers to produce is
unlimited making this one of the most desirable times to create this sort of medium.