1. 罗薇 wluo@comm.ecnu.edu.cn
Documentary Study 罗薇

2. What is documentary?

5. How to identify a documentary?

6. Some popular answers Not a fiction film or TV drama
A serious film or TV programme tries to teach you something.
A film or a TV programme tells a story about real life, with claims to truthfulness.

7. Some more theoretical answers
Non-fiction genre
Real people, real stories
Revealing the truth
Recording and presenting the historical happenings ……

8. + =
Documentary ?

9. Which is the correct translation of documentary in Chinese?
And why ?

10. Theodore Géricault 's
The Epsom Derby (1821) 
Eadweard Muybridge's 
The Horse in Motion (1878 ) 

11. Non-fiction films —— “Cinema of Attraction”
Arrival of a Train (1895)
Workers Leaving
the Lumiere Factory
(1895)

12. Auguste and Louis Lumière
cinematograph
Auguste and Louis Lumière

13. The emergence of non-fiction films
Pre-1900
"actuality" films
1900–1920
Travelogue films
Newsreels

14. The decline of non-fiction films
The blossoming of fiction films
- dramatic narrative
- editing skills
- movie stars
The limitation of non-fiction films
- content and form seemed
dreadfully alike
- Colonialism Tendency
- faking became a fashion
A trip to the moon
(Georges Méliès,1902)

15. The first Chinese movie featured Peking Opera master’s (谭鑫培) performance of Dingjun Mountain.
Documentary was translated into “纪录电影” in A Practical English- Chinese Dictionary (1931 , edited by 梁实秋)
Dingjun Mountain
(《定军山》, (1905)

16. Director : Robert J. Flaherty
Nanook of the North (1922)
Director : Robert J. Flaherty

17. The term of documentary
Moana (1926)
Director: Robert J. Flaherty
John Grierson

18. A Definition of Documentary
“the creative treatment
of actuality”
—— John Grierson

19. Some controversial concepts
Reality vs. Truth
Non-fiction vs. Fiction
Recording vs. Representation
Objectivity vs. Subjectivity

20. Some questions to begin with…了
Some questions to begin with…
How do you recognize a documentary?
How to define a documentary?
Do you ever question the objectivity and authenticity of documentary presentation?
Does documentary genre bring you closer to the truth ？

21. Books Bill Nichols (2001) Introduction to Documentary
Indiana University Press

22. Erik Barnouw (1993) Documentary: A History of the Non- Fiction Film Oxford University Press.

23. New Documentary: A Critical Introduction. Routledge
Stella Bruzzi
(2000)
New Documentary: A Critical Introduction. Routledge

24. Assessment 1、 Class participation 10% 2、 Presentation 40%
3、 Final essay 50%

25. Documentary Modes （Bill Nichols）
Expository mode
Poetic mode
Observational mode
Participatory/interactive mode
Reflective mode
Performative mode