What is a documentary?

The Princeton Review defines a documentary:

• relating to or consisting of or derived from documents
• a film or TV program presenting the facts about a person or event
• objective: emphasizing or expressing things as perceived without distortion of personal feelings, insertion of fictional matter, or interpretation; “objective art”

I have always thought of documentaries as the boring, or what I classify as boring, shows my dad watches on the History Channel. However, this class has brought documentaries into a different light for me. I now know documentaries are a person’s way of educating an audience by putting them “in another’s shoes.”

While researching documentaries online, I stumbled upon a website that lists the best (in terms of money made) documentaries from 1982 – present. I was surprised at some of the movies on the list that I would have not considered a documentary; for example, The Girl Next Door was number 81 on the list. I also watched a preview of a documentary on HBO.com called The Bastards of the Party, which airs Tuesdays at 6pm. To me, it had all the things a documentary should have. The main character in the documentary, Cle “Bone” Sloan, was the narrator, but instead of focusing on him the whole time, there were a lot of cuts to pictures and videos that gave vivid illustrations of what he was saying. This documentary also taught me that the “crips” and the “bloods” were the “bastard offspring of the political parties of the 60s.” The Bastards of the Party did what a documentary is supposed to do, made the lesson it was attempting to teach its audience interesting.

Although I have had to watch many documentaries, such as A Class Divided, in my psychology courses, I never took a distinct interest in them. However, the more I am exposed to documentaries, the more I find how educational they are. In every documentary that I have watched, I have been taught a lesson and been dumbfounded by either my own or others’ ignorance to certain issues. Cle Sloan decided to produce his documentary to “make a powerful call for change.” Not all documentaries are calling for change but they all contain a powerful message and, while not containing any of the authors/producers opinions, the attempt to enlighten the audience.

So, in search of my definition for a documentary, I came up with this:

A factual film or TV program that captures and captivates its audience while providing educational information in an interesting way.