The Development of Documentary Film Language from the Silent Era to the Present

Abstract

Documentary films are aesthetical representations of actual material or the direct sound recorded with video and presented aesthetically with the help of editing. The language of fiction film is very close to that of documentaries, as these two are the audio-visuals. Prior to the film made by Robert Flaherty, The Nanook of the North people used to call documentary films by different names, like academic film, Exotica etc. Documentary film has been around for 100 years. From the silent era to the sound era, it covers a long way, and the means of communication to the audience have changed with the time. Silent documentaries or sound documentaries, God voice documentaries to synk sound only diegetic sound documentaries, auteur documentaries have taken place. This paper will examine the evolution of documentary film and the changes in its form and language of representation through an examination of the works of some notable documentary filmmakers from various eras.