Poetic documentaries
Gave out a sort of reaction against both the content and the rapidly crystallizing grammar of the early fiction film. It first appeared in the 1920’s. It was a sort of reaction against both the content and the rapidly crystallizing grammar of the early fiction film. The poetic mode moved away from continuity editing and instead organized images of the material world by means of associations and patterns, both in terms of time and space.
Expository documentaries
This speaks directly to the viewer. It was often in the form of an authoritative commentary employing voiceover or titles, proposing a strong argument and point of view. It would try to persuade the viewer of the documentary.
Observational documentaries
This type of ducument tends to attempt to simply and spontaneously observe lived life with a minimum of intervention. Filmmakers who worked in this sub-genre often saw the poetic mode as too abstract and the expository mode as too didactic.
Participatory documentaries
'Believe that it is impossible for the act of filmmaking to not influence or alter the events being filmed.' What these films do is emulate the approach of the anthropologist: participant-observation. The filmmaker is part of the film and we would also get a sense of how situations in the film are affected or altered by his or her presence.
Reflexive documentaries
This type of document makes you question. This documument doesnt see itselve as a trasnparent window, its makes you see somthing in a different way. It is the most self-conscious of all the documentarys, which is highly skeptical of ‘realism.’
Performative documentaries
A Performatice documentary gives out an emotional responce to the viewers. They are strongly personal and unconventional. It also 'might include hypothetical enactments of events designed to make us experience what it might be like for us to possess a certain specific perspective on the world that is not our own.'
