types of Documentary's

There are 6 different types of documentary and these can include:

Poetic documentaries- this was first appeared in the 1920’s, the poetic mode moved away from the editing and started to organise images of the material world by the means of associations and patterns and this was both within the terms of time and space. The films were lyrical and fragmentary.

Expository documentaries- this documentary speaks directly to the viewer often from the form of a confident explanation of the employing voiceover and titles, where there would propose for a strong argument and point of the view. This type of films is rhetorical and tries to persuade the viewer. There would usually use a rich and male voice.

Observational documentaries- the filmmakers that work for this type of sub-genre often saw the poetic mode as why it is abstract and the expository mode is too educational. The films aimed for juxtaposition, confidence and the expose of the individual human character in the normal life situations.

 Participatory documentaries- this documentary believe that it’s impossible for the act of filmmaking to not influence or alter the events of being filmed. What these films do is compete with the approach of the anthropologist: participant-observation. Not only is the filmmaker part of the film, we also get a sense of how situations in the film are affected or altered by her presence

Reflexive documentaries – this type of documentary don’t see themselves as a transparent window on the world, however their draw attention to their own construction and the fact they are representations. This documentary lets us see what it is and how we are seeing it.

Performative documentaries- this gives emotional response to the world, as they have a strongly personal, perhaps poetic and experimental events designed to make us experience what it might be like for us to possess certain perspectives of the world that is not our own, for example this can include ethnic minorities, gay and lesbians.