# Documentary Genre

**Category**: Screenplay Genre  
**Type**: Primary  
**Complexity**: High

## Overview

Documentaries present factual content about real people, events, or issues. The genre emphasizes truth-telling, research, and compelling narrative structure applied to non-fiction material.

## Core Concept

Documentary screenplays (or treatments/outlines) structure real-world material into compelling narratives. Success depends on thorough research, finding the story within facts, ethical representation of subjects, and using cinematic techniques to engage audiences with reality. Great documentaries reveal truth while entertaining and enlightening.

## Core Rules

### Rule 1: Find the Narrative

**Description**: Real life doesn't naturally follow story structure. You must find or shape the narrative arc within factual material.

**Why It Matters**: Even non-fiction needs dramatic structure to engage audiences.

**Examples**:
- ✅ **Good**: Identify protagonist, conflict, stakes, and resolution within real events
- ❌ **Bad**: Chronological recitation of facts with no dramatic shape

**Film Reference**: Man on Wire (2008) - Philippe Petit's tightrope walk structured as heist film.

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### Rule 2: Maintain Ethical Integrity

**Description**: Represent subjects and facts honestly. Don't manipulate reality to create false narratives.

**Why It Matters**: Documentary's power comes from truth. Deception destroys credibility and harms subjects.

**Examples**:
- ✅ **Good**: Present multiple perspectives, acknowledge complexity, transparent about methods
- ❌ **Bad**: Deceptive editing, misrepresenting subjects, fabricating events

**Film Reference**: The Act of Killing (2012) - Controversial but transparent about its methods and perspective.

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### Rule 3: Show, Don't Just Tell

**Description**: Use visual evidence, observational footage, and cinematic techniques, not just talking heads.

**Why It Matters**: Documentary is cinema, not radio. Visual storytelling engages more than interviews alone.

**Examples**:
- ✅ **Good**: Vérité footage, archival material, visual metaphors, observational sequences
- ❌ **Bad**: Endless talking heads explaining everything

**Film Reference**: Free Solo (2018) - Stunning cinematography of climbing makes the stakes visceral.

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### Rule 4: Establish Stakes and Tension

**Description**: Make clear what's at risk and create suspense, even when outcome may be known.

**Why It Matters**: Documentaries need dramatic tension to maintain engagement.

**Examples**:
- ✅ **Good**: Clear stakes (life, justice, truth), obstacles, ticking clocks
- ❌ **Bad**: Interesting subject but no dramatic tension or stakes

**Film Reference**: Grizzly Man (2005) - Tension from knowing tragic outcome while watching journey.

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### Rule 5: Have a Point of View

**Description**: Documentary should have perspective or thesis, not just present information neutrally.

**Why It Matters**: Perspective creates argument and engagement. Pure objectivity is impossible and often boring.

**Examples**:
- ✅ **Good**: Clear perspective while acknowledging complexity
- ❌ **Bad**: Wishy-washy "both sides" that says nothing

**Film Reference**: 13th (2016) - Clear thesis about mass incarceration and racial injustice.

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## Guidelines

### Structure

- **Act I**: Introduce subject/issue, establish stakes, present central question or conflict
- **Act II**: Investigation/exploration, complications, revelations, deepening understanding
- **Act III**: Climax or resolution (or acknowledgment of ongoing situation), reflection on meaning

### Pacing

- Vary between talking heads, vérité, archival, and visual sequences
- Build tension toward revelations or climactic moments
- Use music and editing for emotional pacing
- Allow quiet moments for reflection
- Structure around dramatic beats, not just chronology

### Character Archetypes

- **Protagonist**: Central subject or filmmaker as investigator
- **Antagonist**: Opposition, system, or problem being examined
- **Supporting**: Experts, witnesses, affected parties

### Tone and Atmosphere

- Varies by subject (investigative, celebratory, elegiac, urgent)
- Often serious but can include humor
- Intimate or epic depending on scope
- Emotional engagement with real stakes
- Sense of discovery or revelation

### Visual Style

- Vérité (observational, handheld)
- Formal interviews (controlled lighting, composition)
- Archival footage and photos
- Reenactments (if used, clearly marked)
- Visual metaphors and b-roll

### Dialogue

- Interview questions (often removed in final cut)
- Natural speech from subjects
- Voiceover narration (filmmaker or subject)
- Minimal scripting - capture authentic voices
- Let subjects tell their own stories

## Common Pitfalls

### Pitfall 1: Talking Heads Syndrome

**Problem**: Relying entirely on interviews with no visual storytelling.

**Solution**: Use vérité footage, archival material, visual sequences to show the story.

**Example**: The Thin Blue Line (1988) - Stylized reenactments and visual sequences beyond interviews.

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### Pitfall 2: Lack of Access or Footage

**Problem**: Important events or subjects unavailable, forcing reliance on description.

**Solution**: Use creative solutions - reenactments, animation, archival, or acknowledge limitations.

**Example**: Waltz with Bashir (2008) - Animated documentary when footage doesn't exist.

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### Pitfall 3: Losing Objectivity

**Problem**: Becoming so invested in thesis that you ignore contradictory evidence or manipulate facts.

**Solution**: Present strongest version of opposing views, acknowledge complexity, be transparent about perspective.

**Example**: The Fog of War (2003) - Lets Robert McNamara speak extensively, revealing complexity.

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## Film Examples

### Example 1: Hoop Dreams (1994)

**Director**: Steve James

**Why It Works**: Five-year vérité following two basketball players. Epic scope, intimate character study.

**Key Scenes**:
- **Recruitment**: Dreams and exploitation
- **Injuries and Setbacks**: Reality crushing dreams
- **Graduation**: Bittersweet resolution

**Techniques Used**:
- Long-term observational filming
- Character-driven narrative structure
- Social commentary through personal stories
- No narration - subjects tell their own stories

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### Example 2: Man on Wire (2008)

**Director**: James Marsh

**Why It Works**: Philippe Petit's World Trade Center tightrope walk structured as heist thriller.

**Key Scenes**:
- **Planning**: Heist film structure
- **The Walk**: Archival photos create suspense
- **Aftermath**: Reflection on meaning

**Techniques Used**:
- Heist film structure for documentary
- Reenactments integrated with interviews
- Archival photos as climax
- Suspense despite known outcome

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### Example 3: 13th (2016)

**Director**: Ava DuVernay

**Why It Works**: Powerful thesis about mass incarceration and racial injustice. Clear argument with extensive evidence.

**Key Scenes**:
- **13th Amendment Loophole**: Central thesis established
- **Historical Montage**: Visual evidence of systemic racism
- **Modern Prison System**: Connecting past to present

**Techniques Used**:
- Archival footage as evidence
- Expert interviews building argument
- Clear thesis and structure
- Historical analysis with contemporary relevance

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### Example 4: Free Solo (2018)

**Director**: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin

**Why It Works**: Stunning cinematography of Alex Honnold's El Capitan climb. Life-or-death stakes.

**Key Scenes**:
- **Practice Falls**: Establishing danger
- **Relationship Tension**: Personal stakes
- **The Climb**: Breathtaking, terrifying climax

**Techniques Used**:
- Incredible cinematography of climbing
- Character study alongside athletic achievement
- Building suspense toward known event
- Ethical questions about filming dangerous activity

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## Integration with Other Features

### Compatible Themes

- **Truth and Justice**: Investigative documentaries
- **Human Achievement**: Sports, art, exploration
- **Social Issues**: Activism and change
- **Nature**: Environmental and wildlife
- **History**: Past events and their meaning

### Compatible Styles

- **Vérité**: Observational, fly-on-wall (Hoop Dreams, Minding the Gap)
- **Investigative**: Uncovering truth (The Thin Blue Line, Citizenfour)
- **Essay Film**: Personal reflection (Sherman's March, Stories We Tell)
- **Archive-Based**: Historical events (The Fog of War, Amy)

### Hybrid Combinations

- **Documentary + Thriller**: Investigative suspense (Citizenfour, Icarus)
- **Documentary + Biography**: Life stories (Won't You Be My Neighbor?, RBG)
- **Documentary + Nature**: Wildlife and environment (Planet Earth, My Octopus Teacher)
- **Documentary + Music**: Musicians and performances (20 Feet from Stardom, Summer of Soul)

## Best Practices

1. **Find the Story**: Narrative structure within facts
2. **Ethical Representation**: Honesty and transparency
3. **Visual Storytelling**: Show don't just tell
4. **Establish Stakes**: What's at risk?
5. **Have a Perspective**: Point of view, not false neutrality
6. **Vary Visual Approach**: Mix interviews, vérité, archival
7. **Build Tension**: Dramatic structure even in non-fiction
8. **Respect Subjects**: Represent people fairly and complexly
9. **Research Thoroughly**: Know your subject deeply
10. **Acknowledge Limitations**: Be transparent about what you don't know

## Resources

- "Introduction to Documentary" by Bill Nichols
- "Directing the Documentary" by Michael Rabiger
- "The Documentary Handbook" by Peter Lee-Wright
- "Man with a Movie Camera" (1929) - Pioneering documentary techniques
- "The Act of Killing" - Controversial, innovative documentary approach

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**Depth Coverage**: 85%
**Last Updated**: 2026-01-31
**Version**: 1.0.0

