Timeline of Documentaries

Documentaries were the first films to be recorded and shown to the public, making them the pioneers of cinema. As such there is a vast history into documentarys spanning from the earliest days of cinema and reaching to modern day. Below is a brief timeline of the key developments in documentaries.

1890's - Actualities (the earliest days of cinema and the first exhibitions of the films)

1920's - Narrative (the development from straight events, to ordering them to create dramatic meaning)

1918-1920's - Kino Pravda (the same event from multiple angles, as soon as a target knew they were being filmed, filming would be stopped as to keep the footage 'real')

1920's-1930's - City Symphonies (a combination of two prior variances of documentaries, Actualities and Kino Pravda)

1930's - Grierson (a contempary focus on documentaries, not focusing on the history but the working class and propaganda)

1918-1940's - Propaganda Films (governments taking charge to create particular documentaries which set out to get a certain message out to the audience e.g. join the war videos)

1945-present - Observational Documentaries - Personal Documentaries (films where the view of the narrator is the key to the narrative rather than a universal view of events)

1950's-60's - Free Cinema (the revelutionary new free cinema movement led to the films being more about the film makers point of view and personal values over them being a social commentator)

Cinema Verite (cinema where the film maker would interact with the subject)

Direct Cinema (making the subject aware of the cameras, while not having effect as the subject would be going about thier day to day lives)

1970's-present - Performative and Reflexive Documentary (arguably the most interesting form of documentary, where situations are set up)