Documentary: Truth And Fiction In Documentary Film

Truth and Fiction in Documentary Film

Documentary film style has been used in films dating back to the pre 1900's. It was later a term that was used by John Grierson in his review of Robert Flaherty's film Moana in 1926. Documentary films are often regarded as films that display reality and tell stories about real facts and interview real people. Although this does not mean that fiction does not exist in documentary films. Films such as Nanook of the North can tell a story that is perceived to be reality when in fact the events are staged or not true. This can be done through the editing process, script writing as well as through camera work. Truth is a fuzzy concept and our understanding of reality is so subjective and the line between truth and fiction often becomes blurred.

“Documentary film, in the words of Bill Nichols, is one of the “discourses of sobriety” that include science, economics, politics, and history-discourses that claim to describe the “real,” to tell the truth” (Jill, and Ann-Louise, 80). Although this gives a very limited of what non-fiction is and what it can be within film. Many documentary filmmakers attempt to change of improve a part of society in some way with their documentaries. In others it is the goal to entertain the audience in some way and others attempt to uncover a hidden truth or mystery. Films such as Grey Garden directed by Albert and David Maysles in 1975 was a film about the everyday lives of a mother and daughter who were reclusive socialites. The directors used a direct cinema approach which allowed the mother and daughter to tell their own stories. There was no use of interviews or voiceovers so we see their lives through their eyes and through their stories. Grey Gardens is an exampl...

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...Cannes Film Festival but wasn’t entered into the competition, although in 2010 it was selected by the library of congress for preservation in the US National Film Registry. It was entered into the registry for being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.

Documentary films strive to tell a story about something that is real with real people and real facts. Sometimes this is true and done very well in films like Grey Gardens but with other films our perception of reality can become fuzzy. Searching for Sugar Man and Nanook of the North are two examples of this, they are telling a true story but films such as these tend to mold the truth. This is when the line between truth and fiction becomes blurred. So at times it becomes very it often becomes very hard to figure out if a film fiction or non-fiction but it is clear there is a mixture of both.