Documentary, or non-fiction cinema, is a completely separate phenomenon of cinema. Documentaries are based on footage of real events and people. The subjects of documentaries are often interesting events, cultural phenomena, scientific facts and hypotheses, and famous people and communities. The masters of this type of filmmaking often rose to serious philosophical generalizations in their productions.

Reconstructions of true events do not belong to documentary filmmaking. However, fragments of fiction films as well as dramatizations, provocations and other staged elements, specially invented for the occasion, may be used in the works of documentaries.

Objectives of Documentaries

Teaching tool (in other words, “educational films”)
Research (geographic, zoological, historical, ethnographic, etc.)
Propaganda (science, goods, technology, religion, etc.)
Chronicle (long-term observation of an event, reportage, etc.)
Publicity

Documentary film is a complex genre, which takes a long time to prepare and work on: life and documentary material is selected, on the basis of which the script is created. The structure of a documentary varies: it uses both staged and reportage shooting, full-scale and indoor shooting, archival video and photo materials. You can observe the advantages of documentaries on TV. The most actual, bright and extraordinary of them invariably enjoy wide popularity among viewers of absolutely different age and social categories.

However, it should be noted that the term “documentary film” is questioned by many modern film scholars and film critics. The fact is that according to many directors, any person at the sight of the camera to some extent begins to play, perform a certain role, behave unnaturally – and as a result the film becomes to some extent staged. That is why many experts deny the existence of documentary film at all, considering it only a subgenre of fiction cinema. And these experts consider only films shot with a hidden camera from beginning to end to be real documentaries.

Educational films
Another category of films considered to be documentaries are educational (instructional) films. Films meant to be shown in schools and other educational institutions. Studies show that educational material, presented in the form of a film, is absorbed much better than the same material retold by the teacher. It seems to be a matter of clarity and polished presentation of the material (not surprisingly, because in the cinema there are probably a lot of takes). The practice of showing educational films is very common in the West and especially in the USA.