Modes of Documentary

Modes of Documentary

American documentary theorist, Bill Nichols looked at the history of documentary and came up with 6 distinct modes of documentary. These were:

1. Observational Mode

Direct engagement with the everyday life of subjects as observed by an obtrusive camera. By maintaining the observational mode, the director allows its 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 about the subject matter.

Examples: Pennebaker's Don't Look Back [1967]


2. Expository Mode (Voice of God)

Verbal commentary and an argumentative logic. Assumes a logical argument and a "right" and "proper" answer using direct address and offering preferred meaning. Mostly associated with Television News programming.

Examples: Herzog's Grizzly man [2005], many nature Documentaries 


3. Participatory Mode

Focuses on the interaction between filmmaker and subject. Unlike the observational mode, the participatory mode welcomes direct engagement between filmmaker and subject(s) - the filmmaker becomes part of the events being recorded. The filmmakers impact on the events being recorded is acknowledged, indeed, it is often celebrated.

Examples: Block's 51 Birch Street [2006]


4. Poetic Mode

This mode of documentary emphasises visual associations, tonal or rhythmic qualities, descriptive passages and formals organisation. The poetic mode of documentary 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 emphasizes visual associations, tonal or rhythmic qualities, descriptive passages, and formal organization favours mood, tone and texture.

Examples: Leni Riefenstahl's and Dziga Vertov's work


5. Performative Mode

Performative modes of documentary are subjective or expressive of the aspect of the filmmakers engagement with the subject and an audiences responsiveness to this engagement. This mode of documentary emphasizes the subjective nature of the documentarian as well asacknowledging the subjective reading of the audience - notions of objectivity are replaced by "evocation and affect"
This mode emphasizes the emotional and social impact on the audience.

Examples: Spurlock's Super Size Me [2004]


6. Reflexive Mode

This mode of documentary calls attention to the assumptions and conventions that govern documentary filmmaking. The Reflexive Mode acknowledges the constructed nature of documentary and flaunts it - conveying to people that this is not necessarily "truth" but a reconstruction of it - "a" truth, not "the" truth.

Examples: Vertov's Man With A Movie Camera [1929]