How is genre represented in a documentary in reference to “Tower” and “My Scientology movie”?
Genre is GET FROM A BOOK.
The term was first coined by John Grierson to indicate the ability of the medium to literally produce a visual “document” of a particular event, a documentary is defined as ‘using pictures or interviews with people involved in real events to provide a factual report on a particular subject. Due to the large proliferation of documentaries as a genre, some critics believe that some of the classic cinematic elements have been diluted to meet the needs for the wider audience. Richard Barsam’s list of documentaries effectively categorizes the different types of film which have been perceived as a documentary, and therefore clearly share codes and conventions. This lift is as followed :
- Factual film
- Ethnographic film
- Films of exploration
- Propaganda film
- Cinéma-vérité
- Direct cinema
- Documentary
In this essay, I aim to explore how the genre is represented in documentaries, and how this representation differs in two examples.
