documentary film

documentary film

 motion picture that shapes and interprets factual material for purposes of education or entertainment. Documentaries have been made in one form or another in nearly every country and have contributed significantly to the development of realism in films. John Grierson (Grierson, John), a Scottish educator who had studied mass communication in the United States, adapted the term in the mid-1920s from the French word documentaire. The documentary-style film, though, had been popular from the earliest days of filmmaking. In Russia, events of the Bolshevik ascent to power in 1917–18 were filmed, and the pictures were used as propaganda. In 1922 the American director Robert Flaherty (Flaherty, Robert) presented Nanook of the North, a record of Eskimo life based on personal observation, which was the prototype of many documentary films. At about the same time, the British director H. Bruce Woolfe reconstructed battles of World War I in a series of compilation films, a type of documentary that bases an interpretation of history on factual news material. The German Kulturfilme, such as the feature-length film Wege zu Kraft und Schönheit (1925; Ways to Health and Beauty), were in international demand.

      The British (United Kingdom) documentary film movement, led by Grierson, influenced world film production in the 1930s by such films as Grierson's Drifters (1929), a description of the British herring fleet, and Night Mail (1936), about the nightly mail train from London to Glasgow. The United States, too, made significant contributions to the genre. Early examples include two films directed by Pare Lorentz: (Lorentz, Pare) The Plow That Broke the Plains (1936), set in America's dust bowl, and The River (1937), a discussion of flood control.

      The production of documentaries was stimulated by World War II. The Nazi government of wartime Germany used the nationalized film industry to produce propaganda documentaries. The American director Frank Capra presented the Why We Fight (1942–45) series for the U.S. Army Signal Corps; Great Britain released London Can Take It (1940), Target for Tonight (1941), and Desert Victory (1943); and the National Film Board of Canada turned out educational films in the national interest.

      In the early 1950s attention once again focused on the documentary in the British free cinema movement, led by a group of young filmmakers concerned with the individual and his everyday experience. Documentaries also became popular in television programming, especially in the late 1960s and the early 1970s. See also cinéma vérité.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Documentary film — Documentary redirects here. For other uses, see Documentary (disambiguation). This 16 mm spring wound Bolex H16 Reflex camera is a popular entry level camera used in film schools. Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional… …   Wikipedia

  • Documentary film festivals — Film festivals List of film festivals Europe North/Central America Oceania Documentary film festivals New Media art festivals Documentary film festivals are film festivals devoted solely to …   Wikipedia

  • Documentary Film Movement — The Documentary Film Movement is the name given to the group of British film makers, led by John Grierson, who were influential in British film culture in the 1930s and 1940s. Contents 1 Principles 2 History 3 Further reading 4 …   Wikipedia

  • Documentary film techniques — A documentary film is one that presents information about factual topics. These films have a variety of aims, to record important events and ideas; to inform viewers; to convey opinions and to create public interest. A number of common techniques …   Wikipedia

  • documentary film — noun a film or TV program presenting the facts about a person or event • Syn: ↑documentary, ↑docudrama, ↑infotainment • Derivationally related forms: ↑document (for: ↑documentary), ↑documentary …   Useful english dictionary

  • Documentary Film STUDIO — (Wytwórnia Filmów Dokumentalnych, WFD)    See Documentary and Feature Film Studio.    Historical Dictionary of Polish Cinema by Marek Haltof …   Guide to cinema

  • Central Studio for Documentary Film — or CSDF (Russian: Центральная студия документальных фильмов, ЦСДФ) is a Soviet/Russian film studio. It was the largest Soviet newsreel and documentary cinematography studio. Headquartered in Moscow, USSR. Currently known as Russian Central Studio …   Wikipedia

  • New York: A Documentary Film — is an eight part, 17½ hour, American documentary film on the history of New York City. It was directed by Ric Burns and originally aired in the U.S. on PBS. The film was a co production of Thirteen New York and WGBH Boston. The series was… …   Wikipedia

  • Southern Utah International Documentary Film Festival — (DOCUTAH) Official 2010 poster Location St. George, Utah, United States …   Wikipedia

  • Full Frame Documentary Film Festival — The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival is one of the United States premier documentary film festivals, held over the course of four days each spring at the Carolina Theater in Durham, North Carolina. It began in 1998 with no more than a few… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”