A documentary is a film genre, very used on television and books nowadays. A documentary is a way to tell a real story, based on facts. Is important that the story is a true story, and the facts are not to much alterated, they are like they are.
It intended to document some aspect of reality. A documentary can be done with differents pruposes, but the more popular are the educational documentary and the informative documentary.
Different Types of Documentaries
There are Six differents types of documentaries: Poetic documentary, Participatory documentary, Expository documentary, Reflexive documentary, Observational documentary and Performative documentary.
1. Poetic Documentary
Normally, the topic of this type of documentary involve the people present in it, such as the presenter or the intervieweers.
The idea is emphasizes one or more aspects of a person or group of persons’s life and show it. This type of documentary can be quite artistic.
2. Participatory Documentary
In this type of documentary, the presence of the person who is doing the documentary, the filmaker, influence in all the events of the film.
3. Expository Documentary
In this type of documentary, the characters or the filmaker speak directly to the viewer, the main purpose is change the people’s mind or make them think different, about an event.
4. Reflexive Documentary
Reflexive Documentary Is the type of documentary that wants people to think and criticize an event or person in a different way.
5. Observational Documentary
Observational Documentary is the type of documentary where the filmaker has a pasive role, and tries to avoid any interruption in the people or animals’s life that he is shooting.
There are TV chanels full of this type of documentary like National Geografic Channel and Animal Planet. The idea is shown to the viewer a real fact, like the behaviour of animals in their own enviroment.
6. Performative Documentary
They are very emotional documentaries that tries to show a subjective experience to the viewers.