Toni de Bromhead is the second theorist that went into the different types of documentaries due to her criticizing Nichols for his focus on documentary as a rational discourse rather than as she claims that documentary should reach for "hearts and souls not just minds" and that the most important part of the documentary is story. Here is what she felt were the different types of documentaries.
De Bromhead’s documentary
- Linear Documentaries:
Classic or Hollywood storytelling; character-based, follows standard three-act structure, based around conflict and resolution as a storytelling arc. Examples: Primary (1960) - Drew and Leacock.
Detective storytelling; the story is based around the process of an investigation and the obstacles faced by the filmmaker. In some cases the failure to make the film becomes the story of the film. Examples: Films by Michael Moore & Nick Broomfield.
- Discursive Documentaries:
Discursive storytelling; gives priority to information, facts and logic, typical of current affairs documentaries, political documentaries, may give more space to cinematic concerns than purely journalistic film making, often utilities archive footage to illustrate the story. Examples: The War On Democracy (2007) - John Pilger & Rosie the Riveter (1980) – Connie Field.
- Episodic Documentaries
Episodic storytelling; which juxtaposes situations that have no narrative or causal relations, meaning is produced by the juxtaposition of the episodes, often ordered around one dominant theme or idea (e.g. the seasons). Examples: Nannook of the North (1922) - Robert Flaherty & Hospital (1970) - Frederick Wiseman.
- Poetic Documentaries
Poetic storytelling; is built up around audio visual poetic associations, films avoid following a specific story line or conventional narrative logic, utilizes similar structures to poetry such as metaphor and dis junction. Examples: Listen to Britain (1942) - Humphrey Jennings & Rain (1929) - Joris Ivans.
- Hybrid Documentaries
The Diary Film; the linear logic of passing time is used to structure the narrative in either linear or episodic form. Examples: Tarnation (2003) - Jonathan Caouette
The Road Movie; the linear logic of a physical journey is used to structure the narrative in either linear or episodic form. Examples: Don’t Look Back (1966) - D.A. Pennebaker.
Great article
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