Hybrid Documentary by Agnes Varnum 11 films

Widely acknowledged as the first "documentary film," Robert Flaherty's Nanook of the North profiled a way of life among Inuit people that had already passed at the time of production. Because he felt it was important and with the cooperation of his subjects, Flaherty recreated their story to share with the rest of the world beyond the constraints of geography and time. It has been known to happen that audiences feel cheated to find out that what appeared to be "true" or "real" is actually scripted or crafted in some way, but it is important to recognize such devices for what they are: tools for seeking the heart, or Truth (with a capital T), of a story. In various ways, the films on this list bend their genre of "documentary" or "narrative" by employing elements of the other to achieve their central truth. Some of these films are not regularly considered documentary, but there is not one definition for a documentary film, and these test those boundaries. There are also films that use their form, and even their very story, to question the nature of truth, leaving us ponder what is filmed "reality" and perhaps reinforcing that stories are stories, whether in documentary or narrative form.

FILMS (11)

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