Pseudo-documentary
A pseudo-documentary or fake documentary is a film or video production that takes the form or style of a documentary film but does not portray real events. Rather, scripted and fictional elements are used to tell the story. The pseudo-documentary, unlike the related mockumentary, is not always intended as satire or humor. It may use documentary camera techniques but with fabricated sets, actors, or situations, and it may use digital effects to alter the filmed scene or even create a wholly synthetic scene.[1][2][3]
Film
The film Mad Max 2 first frames the story by showing a staged documentary-style sequence of images designed to inform the viewer that what follows is the aftermath of an apocalyptic global war.[6]
Fake-fiction
Related to, and in exact opposition to pseudo-documentary, is the notion of “fake-fiction”. A fake-fiction film takes the form of a staged, fictional movie, while actually portraying real, unscripted events.
The notion of fake-fiction was coined[7] by Pierre Bismuth to describe his 2016 film Where Is Rocky II?, which uses documentary method to tell a real, unscripted story, but is shot and edited to appear like a fiction film. The effect of this fictional aesthetic is precisely to cancel the sense of reality, making the real events appear as if they were staged or constructed.
Unlike the related mockumentary, fake-fiction does not focus on satire, and in distinction with docufiction, it does not re-stage fictional versions of real past events.
Another filmmaker whose work could be associated with the concept of fake-fiction is Gianfranco Rosi. For example, Below Sea Level[8] uses the language of fiction cinema in its rendering of unscripted, documentary material. Of his own work, Rosi said, "I don’t care if I'm making a fiction film or documentary — to me it's a film, it's a narrative thing."[9]
Found or discovered footage
The term
Television
Pseudo-documentary forms have appeared in television advertisements and campaign advertising. The "Revolving Door" ad used in the US presidential campaign of 1988 to attack candidate Michael Dukakis showed scripted scenes intended to look like documentary footage of men entering and exiting a prison through a revolving door.[11] Boston-based band the Del Fuegos appeared in a 1984 commercial for Miller beer, with scripted scenes shot in hand-held camera/pseudo-documentary style. The band was criticized for selling out and for the falseness of the commercial; founding member Warren Zanes said making the ad was a mistake, that their core audience turned away, and the larger audience gained by the exposure did not maintain interest for long.[12]
Peter Greenaway employed pseudo-documentary style in his French television production Death on the Seine in 1988. He used fabricated scenes to reconstruct a historic event that was otherwise impossible to shoot, and portrayed it as reality.[13]
Reality television has been described as a form of pseudo-documentary.[14] An early and influential example is 1992's The Real World by MTV, a scripted "reality" show bordering on soap opera.[15]
See also
- Docudrama – a dramatized documentary
- Docufiction – a documentary of fiction
- Mockumentary – a parodical or humorous fictional documentary
References
- ISBN 0773476490.
- ISBN 978-0761846321.
- ^ Jacobs, Delmar G. (1997). Pseudo-documentary: Form and Application in Narrative Feature Film. University of South Florida.
- ISBN 978-0520247383.
- ^ Rosenbaum 2007, p. 133
- ISBN 0072484551.
- ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2016-10-22.
- ^ Below Sea Level
- ISSN 0192-1940. Retrieved 2016-10-27.
- ^ Bordwell, David (13 November 2012). "Return to Paranormalcy". davidbordwell.net. Retrieved 24 May 2015.
- ISBN 0199879869.
- ISBN 978-0822341390.
- ISBN 0814326390.
- ^ Elliott, Douglas Warren (1999). Reality-based Television as Pseudo-documentary. University of Minnesota.
- ISBN 0786747757.