The 6 different types of documentaries

1. Poetic documentaries
- First appeared i the 1920's
- Moved away from smooth editing
- Organised images of the material world by means of association and patterns in terms of both time and space
- life like people were absent
- Films were fragmentary, impressionistic and lyrical


2. Expository documentaries
- They speak directly to the viewer
- Feature authoritative commentary
- Films are rhetorical
- Feature a "voice of god" type narrator it often sounds objective

3. Observational documentaries
- Spontaneously observe a lived life with minimal intervention
- The films aimed for intimacy, immediacy and revelation of individual human character in ordinary life situations
- Film maker aimed to be a fly on the wall

4. Participatory documentaries
- It is impossible in these documentaries for the act of filming to not effect the subjects being filmed.
- the film maker is a part of the film
- We also get a sense of how events in the film are altered by the film makers presence
- The film maker becomes almost like a social actor
- the encounter between film maker and subject becomes critical as an element in the film

5. reflexive documentaries
- They do not see themselves as a transparent window on the world
- They draw attention to their own constructed ness
- They prompt us to question the authenticity of documentary in general
- It is the most self conscious of all the documentaries

6. performative documentaries
- They stress subjective experience and emotional response to the world
- They are strongly personal, unconventional and perhaps poetic or experimental
- They may include hypothetical enactments of events  designed to make us experience a specific perspective that is not our own
- Many techniques borrowed from fiction and avant grade are used


Today we also started watching the documentary supersize me which started out being very interesting and taking a very personal look through the point of view of one mans life, into the fast food industry and obesity and excuses people make for being fat as well as peoples terrible eating habits. Its very interesting so far. I also believe that it is a Participatory documentary as the man in it is experiencing everything and is apart of all the action.