Modes of documentaries

POETIC MODE• Moves away from the objective reality of a given situation or

people to grasp at an inner “truth” that can only be grasped by poetical manipulation codes emphasises visual associations.

Key Examples• Robert Flaherty’s Man of Aran (1934)• Leni Riefenstahl’s Olympia (1938) presents a glorified view of

athletes during 1936 Olympic games.

Expositional Mode• This mode is what we most identify with the documentary. It

emphasises verbal commentary and argumentive logic often using a narrator

• Assumes a logical argument and a right and proper answer using direct address

• Most associated with television news programming.

Observational Mode• Cinema veritie or direct cinema movement which emerged in the

late 1950’s / early 1960’s

• Attempted to view real life situation as a fly on a wall.

• Cameraman is ignored by the characters.

• By maintaining the observational mode, the director allows the subject to forget the presence of the camera and behave more naturally, thereby letting the audience get a better sense of how the person really feels

• Examples would include benefit street.

PARTICIPATORY MODE • Unlike the observational mode, the participatory mode

welcome. Direct engagement between filmmaker and subjects

• Filmmaker impact on events is acknowledge.

• Archival footage to examine historical issues is also included

Key Examples• Films of Michael Moore- here the filmmaker directly engages

with the material• Life of Michael Jackson By Bashir

Reflexive Mode• The reflexive Mode acknowledge the constructed nature of

documentary and flaunts it - conveying to people that is not necessary.

• An example of reflexive documentary maker would be Nick Broomfield, who mainly uses minimal camera crew with just himself and the cameraman most of the time.

• It makes the audience more aware of the problems the documentary maker faces while they make the film.

Performative Mode• This mode of documentary emphasis the subjective as well as

acknowledging the subjective reading of the audience e.g. supersize me.

• Documentary maker comments on the process of making the documentary.

• The documentary is often shaped in to the narrative of an investigation or search.