Docudrama

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Docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of television and film, which features dramatized re-enactments of actual events. [1] It is described as a hybrid of documentary and drama and "a fact-based representation of real event". [2]

Contents

Docudramas typically strive to adhere to known historical facts, while allowing some degree of dramatic license in peripheral details, such as when there are gaps in the historical record. Dialogue may, or may not, include the actual words of real-life people, as recorded in historical documents. Docudrama producers sometimes choose to film their reconstructed events in the actual locations in which the historical events occurred.[ citation needed ]

A docudrama, in which historical fidelity is the keynote, is generally distinguished from a film merely "based on true events", a term which implies a greater degree of dramatic license, and from the concepts of historical drama, a broader category which may also incorporate entirely fictionalized events intermixed with factual ones, and historical fiction, stories generally featuring fictional characters and plots taking place in historical settings or against the backdrop of historical events.

As a portmanteau, docudrama is sometimes confused with docufiction . However, unlike docufiction—which is essentially a documentary filmed in real time, incorporating some fictional elements—docudrama is filmed at a time subsequent to the events portrayed.[ citation needed ]

Characteristics

The docudrama genre is a reenactment of actual historical events. [1] However it makes no promise of being entirely accurate in its interpretation. [1] It blends fact and fiction for its recreation and its quality depends on factors like budget and production time. [3] The filmmaker Leslie Woodhead presents the docudrama dilemma in the following manner:

[instead of hunting for definitions] I think it much more useful to think of the form as a spectrum that runs from journalistic reconstruction to relevant drama with infinite graduations along the way. In its various mutation it's employed by investigative journalists, documentary feature makers, and imaginative dramatists. So we shouldn't be surprised when programs as various as Culloden and Oppenheimer or Suez, or Cabinet reconstructions refuse tidy and comprehensive definition. [4]

Docudramas producers use literary and narrative techniques to flesh out the bare facts of an event in history to tell a story. Some degree of license is often taken with minor historical facts for the sake of enhancing the drama. Docudramas are distinct from historical fiction, in which the historical setting is a mere backdrop for a plot involving fictional characters. [1]

The scholar Steven N. Lipkin considers docudrama as a form of performance through recollection which in turn shapes our collective memory of past events. It is a mode of representation. [5] Educator Benicia D'sa maintained that docudramas are heavily impacted by filmmakers' own perspectives and understanding of history. [6]

History

The impulse to incorporate historical material into literary texts has been an intermittent feature of literature in the west since its earliest days. Aristotle's theory of art is based on the use of putatively historical events and characters. Especially after the development of modern mass-produced literature, there have been genres that relied on history or then-current events for material. English Renaissance drama, for example, developed subgenres specifically devoted to dramatizing recent murders and notorious cases of witchcraft.

However, docudrama as a separate category belongs to the second half of the twentieth century. Louis de Rochemont, creator of The March of Time , became a producer at 20th Century Fox in 1943. [7] There he brought the newsreel aesthetic to films, producing a series of movies based upon real events using a realistic style that became known as semidocumentary. [8] The films ( The House on 92nd Street , Boomerang , 13 Rue Madeleine ) were imitated, [7] and the style soon became used even for completely-fictional stories, such as The Naked City . [9] [10] Perhaps the most significant of the semidocumentary films was He Walked by Night (1948), based upon an actual case. [11] [12] Jack Webb had a supporting role in the movie and struck up a friendship with the LAPD consultant, Sergeant Marty Wynn. The film and his relationship with Wynn inspired Webb to create Dragnet , [13] one of the most famous docudramas in history.

The particular portmanteau term "docudrama" was coined in 1957 by Philip C. Lewis (1904-1979), of Tenafly, New Jersey, a former vaudevillian and stage actor turned playwright and author, [14] [15] in connection with a production he wrote, in response to the defeat of a local school-funding referendum, for the Tenafly Citizens' Education Council addressing "the development of education and its significance in American life." [16] Lewis trademarked the term "DocuDrama" in 1967 (expired, 1992) for a production company of the same name. [17]

The influence of New Journalism tended to create a license for authors to treat with literary techniques material that might in an earlier age have been approached in a purely journalistic way. Both Truman Capote and Norman Mailer were influenced by this movement, and Capote's In Cold Blood is arguably the most famous example of the genre. [18]

American television

Some docudrama examples for American television include Brian's Song (1971), and Roots (1977). Brian's Song is the biography of Brian Piccolo, a Chicago Bears football player who died at a young age after battling cancer. Roots depicts the life of a slave and his family. [1]

Examples

This list is ordered by release date.

Radio

Film

Television

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Documentary film</span> Nonfictional motion picture

A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in terms of "a filmmaking practice, a cinematic tradition, and mode of audience reception [that remains] a practice without clear boundaries".

<i>Nanook of the North</i> 1922 film by Robert J. Flaherty

Nanook of the North is a 1922 American silent film that combines elements of documentary and docudrama/docufiction, at a time when the concept of separating films into documentary and drama did not yet exist. In the tradition of what would later be called salvage ethnography, the film follows the struggles of the Inuk man named Nanook and his family in the Canadian Arctic. It is written and directed by Robert J. Flaherty, who also served as cinematographer, editor, and producer.

<i>The War Game</i> 1966 pseudo-documentary TV film by Peter Watkins

The War Game is a 1966 British pseudo-documentary film that depicts a nuclear war and its aftermath. Written, directed and produced by Peter Watkins for the BBC, it caused dismay within the BBC and within government, and was withdrawn before the provisional screening date of 6 October 1965. The corporation said that "the effect of the film has been judged by the BBC to be too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting. It will, however, be shown to invited audiences..."

<i>Louisiana Story</i> 1948 film by Robert J. Flaherty

Louisiana Story is a 1948 American black-and-white drama film directed and produced by Robert J. Flaherty. Its script was written by Frances H. Flaherty and Robert J. Flaherty. Although it has historically been represented as a documentary film, the events and characters depicted are fictional. There is not enough factual or educational material in the film to warrant classifying it as docufiction. The film was commissioned by the Standard Oil Company to promote its drilling ventures in the Louisiana bayous.

A mockumentary is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events, but presented as a documentary which in itself is a subset of a faux-documentary style of film-making.

True crime is a nonfiction literary, podcast, and film genre in which the author examines a crime and details the actions of people associated with and affected by criminal events. It is a cultural phenomenon that can refer to the promotion of sensationalized and emotionally charged content around the subject of violent crime, for the general public. Many works in this genre recount high-profile, sensational crimes such as the killing of JonBenét Ramsey, the O. J. Simpson murder case, and the Pamela Smart murder, while others are devoted to more obscure slayings.

A hybrid genre is a literary or film genre that blends themes and elements from two or more different genres. Works in hybrid genres are also referred to as cross-genre, multi-genre, mixed genre, or fusion genre. The Dictionary of Media and Communication describes hybrid genre as "the combination of two or more genres", which may combine elements of more than one genre and/or which may "cut across categories such as fact and fiction". Some such sub-genres have acquired their own specialised names, such as comedy drama, romantic comedy ("rom-com"), horror Western, and docudrama.

A biographical film or biopic is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or group of people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character's real name is used. They differ from docudrama films and historical drama films in that they attempt to comprehensively tell a single person's life story or at least the most historically important years of their lives.

Peter Watkins is an English film and television director. He was born in Norbiton, Surrey, lived in Sweden, Canada and Lithuania for many years, and now lives in France. He is one of the pioneers of docudrama. His films present pacifist and radical ideas in a nontraditional style. He mainly concentrates his works and ideas around the mass media and our relation/participation to a movie or television documentary.

A historical drama is a dramatic work set in a past time period, usually used in the context of film and television, which presents historical events and characters with varying degrees of fictional elements such as creative dialogue or fictional scenes which aim to compress separate events or illustrate a broader factual narrative. The biographical film is a type of historical drama which generally focuses on a single individual or well-defined group. Historical dramas can include romances, adventure films, and swashbucklers.

Narrative film, fictional film or fiction film is a motion picture that tells a fictional or fictionalized story, event or narrative. Commercial narrative films with running times of over an hour are often referred to as feature films, or feature-length films. The earliest narrative films, around the turn of the 20th century, were essentially filmed stage plays and for the first three or four decades these commercial productions drew heavily upon the centuries-old theatrical tradition.

A semidocumentary is a form of book, film, or television program presenting a fictional story that incorporates many factual details or actual events, or which is presented in a manner similar to a 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.

The non-fiction novel is a literary genre that, broadly speaking, depicts non-fictional elements, such as real historical figures and actual events, woven together with fictitious conversations and uses the storytelling techniques of fiction. The non-fiction novel is an otherwise loosely defined and flexible genre. The genre is sometimes referred to using the slang term "faction", a portmanteau of the words fact and fiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Docufiction</span> Film genre

Docufiction is the cinematographic combination of documentary and fiction, this term often meaning narrative film. It is a film genre which attempts to capture reality such as it is and which simultaneously introduces unreal elements or fictional situations in narrative in order to strengthen the representation of reality using some kind of artistic expression.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drama (film and television)</span> Film and television genre

In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-genre, macro-genre, or micro-genre, such as soap opera, police crime drama, political drama, legal drama, historical drama, domestic drama, teen drama, and comedy-drama (dramedy). These terms tend to indicate a particular setting or subject matter, or they combine a drama's otherwise serious tone with elements that encourage a broader range of moods. To these ends, a primary element in a drama is the occurrence of conflict—emotional, social, or otherwise—and its resolution in the course of the storyline.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dramatization</span>

A dramatization is the creation of a dramatic performance of material depicting real or fictional events. Dramatization may occur in any media, and can play a role in education and the psychological development of children. The production of a dramatization presents potential legal issues, arising both from the use of elements of fictional works created by others, and with the depiction of real persons and events.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Docudrama". The Museums of Broadcast Communications. Archived from the original on 2012-08-12. Retrieved 28 June 2012.
  2. ↑ Ogunleye, Foluke (2005). "Television Docudrama as Alternative Records of History". History in Africa. 32: 479–484. doi:10.1353/hia.2005.0019. ISSN   0361-5413. JSTOR   20065757. S2CID   162322739.
  3. ↑ Hoffer & Nelson 1978, p. 21.
  4. ↑ Rosenthal 1999, p. xv.
  5. ↑ Lipkin 2011, pp. 1–2.
  6. ↑ D'sa, Benicia (2005-01-01). "Social Studies in the Dark: Using Docudramas to Teach History". The Social Studies. 96 (1): 9–13. doi:10.3200/TSSS.96.1.9-13. ISSN   0037-7996. S2CID   144165650.
  7. 1 2 Aitken, Ian, ed. (2013). The Concise Routledge Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film. Routledge. pp. 767–768. ISBN   9781136512063.
  8. ↑ Schauer, Bradley (2017). Escape Velocity: American Science Fiction Film, 1950–1982. Wesleyan University Press. p. 42. ISBN   9780819576606.
  9. ↑ Krutnik, Frank; Neale, Steve; Neve, Brian; Stanfield, Peter, eds. (2007). "Un-American" Hollywood: Politics and Film in the Blacklist Era (Illustrated ed.). Rutgers University Press. p. 143. ISBN   9780813541983.
  10. ↑ Spicer, Andrew (2018). Film Noir. Routledge. p. 57. ISBN   9781317875031.
  11. ↑ Krutnik, Frank (2006). In a Lonely Street: Film Noir, Genre, Masculinity. Routledge. p. 206. ISBN   9781134973187.
  12. ↑ Sanders, Steven; Skoble, Aeon J. (2021). The Philosophy of TV Noir. University Press of Kentucky. p. 55. ISBN   9780813181561.
  13. ↑ Nickerson, Catherine Ross (2010). The Cambridge Companion to American Crime Fiction. Cambridge University Press. p. 102. ISBN   9780521136068.
  14. ↑ "Philip C. Lewis, 75, dramatist, writer for various media". The Bergen Record. 5 September 1979. Retrieved 25 June 2022.
  15. ↑ "Philip C. Lewis, Writer For Film, Radio and TV". The New York Times . 6 September 1979. Retrieved 25 June 2022.
  16. ↑ "docudrama (n.)". Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper. Retrieved 25 June 2022.
  17. ↑ "DOCUDRAMA - Trademark Information". Trademark Elite. Retrieved 25 June 2022.
  18. ↑ Siegle 1984, pp. 437–451.
  19. ↑ "The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1977) - Charles B. Pierce | Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related | AllMovie".
  20. ↑ "The Big Short (2015) - Adam McKay | Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related | AllMovie".
  21. ↑ "Spotlight (2015) - Tom McCarthy | Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related | AllMovie".
  22. ↑ Hunter, Allan (21 May 2023). "'Little Girl Blue': Cannes Review". Screen Daily . Archived from the original on 22 May 2023. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
  23. ↑ Cary Darling (2023-04-03). "Review: Apple TV+'s 'Tetris' is a heady docudrama about the creation of a classic video game". Houston Chronicle.

Bibliography

Further reading

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