Documentary
A Documentary is a work that revolves around non-news reporting of nonfiction subjects.
The format can be either feature one long film (or one per episode of a radio or TV series, like Frontline) or multiple shorter segments (like 60 Minutes).
Many of the documentaries are known to break several Omnipresent Tropes which exist in other genres due to nature of the documentaries.
Types of documentaries include:
- The TV Documentary.
- The Nature Documentary.
- The Documentary of Lies.
- The Speculative Documentary
- The Docu Soap
Works of fiction or comedy sometimes use a style that imitates or parodies the documentary:
- The Documentary Episode.
- The Faux Documentary.
- The "Faux To" Guide.
- The Mockumentary.
The Mondo Movie is an interesting type of Exploitation Film that can be a hybrid of the serious types (such as the original Mondo Cane) or be totally fake (for example, Faces of Death).
Film documentaries have their own Film Festivals, which are often the only exposure a documentary gets in the public eye. In North America, the largest documentary festival is Hot Docs.
Compare and contrast News Broadcast.
For individual documentaries, see Category:Documentary.
- The Ken Burns Effect
- Manipulative Editing
- Ridiculously Cute Critter
- Shoot the Money
- Stock Footage
- Strawman Political and other tropes in The War On Straw
- Talking Heads