After spending a lot of Sunday (14th November), doing research, due to site errors it has all been removed, therefore I am doing it again here. It is written in my own words.
THE HISTORY OF DOCUMENTARY
Early cinema
The birth of moving pictures brought with it the birth of "documentaries," or at the time "actualities" - they consisted purely of single shots of everyday events. The most often quoted is the Lumière brothers' Leaving the Factory (1894), or the shocking The Arrival of a Train. Because of the restrictions of camera footage length, most of these films were a minute or less in length.
At first being fascinating, audiences grew tired of the everyday scenes and wanted more - the narrative became more compelling and convincing, an example being The Kiss in the Tunnel (GA Smith, 1899), turning the simple edit into a film, and introducing possibilities of not only telling a story, but creating an impression. Georges Méliès was one of the first to experiment using cinematic devices, e.g double exposures to create ghost-like effects or fantasy sequences like in A Trip to the Moon(1902).
Growth of styles and theories
With the development of film-making and the growth of cinema attendance, non-fiction films began to offer more than just entertainment, creating windows to other parts of the world; the audience saw and responded to real-life subjects demonstrating real skills and demonstrating real emotions.
Frank Hurley's South (1919) documented the failed Antarctic expedition led by Ernest Shackleton, an important example. Robert Flaherty's Nanook of the North (1922), set in an Inuit community, is commonly proposed as the first feature-length documentary. The film included the use of third-person narration and focus on a person as a hero. However, controversy tells us that some sequences, e.g. hunting scenes, were re-created for the camera. Despite this, the film still set a high standard for other film-makers to follow, right up to the present day.
Kino-pravda (Film Truth), was a series of news reportage films. the forerunners of newsreels and shows and later, cinéma vérité. The use of experimental editing techniques are most prominent in Man with the Movie Camera (1929), his aim to portray "life caught unawares" by using the power of the camera.
Film-makers began to experiment more, incorporating styles that are now actually used commonly. Avant-garde cinema was montage and abstract narratives - impressionistic films, often about mundane subjects presented in a very poetic style. Examples are Manhatta (Paul Strand and Charles Wheeler, 1921), or Emak Bakia (Man Ray, 1926).
Cinéma vérité became more popular during this period, films like Don't Look Back (DA Pennebaker 1967) taking a candid look at the Bob Dylan Britain tour 1965, starting off styles that work a lot still today. Hand-held cameras brought an impersonal and intrusive attitude, so everything could be intimate.
An important part of cinéma vérité is that hours of material can be edited to make a certain impression of a character, Bob Dyan presented enigmatic throughout the whole film.
Compilation films started in 1927 with Esfir Scrub's The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty, a more recent example being The Atomic Cafe (1982) made entirely from US government stock footage.
Of course, with hand-held cameras accessible, in the late 60's emerged more polemical or political films. The age's spirit was shown in films like The Year of the Pig (1968); Millhouse (1971) took a critical look at the Vietnam war; La Hora de los Hornos (1968) and L'aggettivo donna (1971) were radical political documentaries; Es kommt darauf an, sie zu verandern (1973) looked at women's working conditions in West Germany.. etc
1968 - two influential film collectives were formed in the UK, putting out campaign films and demonstrating working practices.
Modern documentaries
More recent documentaries have been The Thin Blue Line (Errol Morris, 1988), incorporating stylised re-enactments, and Michael Moore's Roger and Me (1989). Commercial success of some documentaries like these has led critics to label some films as "docu-ganda" or "mondo films."
In the 2000's documentary films have become increasingly popular in cinema, leading film-makers to collide opinion with fact - recent examples: Farenheit 9/11 (Michael Moore, 2004), Bowling for Columbine (2002), Super Size Me (Morgan Spurlock, 2004). In Hidden Gomd (2002), directed by Hanna Heilborn, David Aronositsch and Mats Johansson, uses lots of animation to tell a story.
IN THE GENRE (HOW DOCUMENTARIES CHANGED AND HOW TECHNOLOGY IMPACTED)
As well as the changing of documentary film techniques as talked about above, documentaries changed with the development of technology, e.g the Internet has been used as a way of promoting TV, especially documentary work.
The biggest impact on documentaries, besides the changing of camera technology and possibilities, though, is television.
The first programmes to be broadcast on TV were programs like the Coronation of King George VI in 1937 and the Olympic games in 1948, but the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1952 is thought to be the moment where TV became part of British lives.
News
The BBC Television Newsreel (1948-54) was an early example of a news broadcast, following the pattern of (documentary) cinema newsreel programmes. This was replaced by BBC Television News in 1954, an "illustrated summary of the news." We now have 24 hour news services with news as it happens e.g. the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre towers.
Magazine style
Picture Page (1936-52) was one of the first TV programmes to receive critical acclaim, the format of topical or general interest items and interviews with popular figures working well. Horizon (1964) took the format but applied it so scientific issues. Presented by Alan Whicker, this show presented another version of "a window on the world," used in documentaries like Nanook of the North and South, as talked about above. Michael Palin has also been very successful with this same idea.
Current affairs
Panorama (1953), Tonight 1957-65), and Twenty Four Hours (1952-72) all presented current affairs in a magazine-style/news programme, considered forerunners of today's Newsnight.
Seven Up (1963) featured a group of 7 year old children being interviewed.
World in Action's tradition of bringing untold stories into the public domain was continued by John Pilger e.g Year Zero: the Silent Death of Cambodia (1979).
Director Mike Grigsby wanted to "give voice to the voiceless", featuring the camera lingering on people even after they had finished speaking.
Natural History and Historical
David Attenborough is obviously the most well-known Natural History documentary presenter, making programmes like The World About Us (1967-86), Life on Earth (1979), and Planet Earth (2006).
Modern natural history programmes have used techniques shared with Reality TV shows like the single observational camera, to bring viewers closer to nature, e.g. Springwatch (2005).
There has been a long tradition of historical programmes, like Civilisation (1969), and The Ascent of Man (1973).
The World at War (1973-74) was successful, featuring lots of eye-witness interviews.
Advanced computer graphics has enhanced programmes like Battlefield Britain (2005), enabling presenters to show simulated battles to explain battle strategies.
Also popular today are clip-based programmes like 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches.
Drama Documentary
These blend documentary and drama, showing real events and sometimes using actors to perform scenes. Examples of ground-breaking drama documentaries are Culloden (1964), The War Game (1965) and Cathy Come Home (1966).
Controversy has risen from programmes like Death of a Princess (1980), Hillsborough (1966) and Bloody Sunday (2001).
Fly-on-the-wall
This technique is used a lot in comedy programmes today, like The Office. It has been used in documentary film-making too, with programmes like Airline (1988), and The Family (1974). Sometimes the presenters, like Louis Theroux, will talk to the subjects but also the audience in these situations.
Mocumentary
Ghostwatch, showed in 1992, claimed to be a live broadcast investigating claims of paranormal phenomena. Comedy sketch shows have plundered documentary styles for comic effect, like in spoof programmes like Brass Eye (1997-2001). Similar techniques have been used in comedy films like Borat, genuine interviews have been "conducted within the context of a stage persona".
The Urban Savannah (2004), is a spoof of wildlife documentary styles by using things like voice-overs and interviews, but instead of seeing a pride of lions, we see youth groups in a city centre.
Lifestyle
Programmes by the 1990's widespread into cooking, gardening, DIY, property and holiday programmes etc... 10x10 portrayed unusual life in Britain. Ferment (2000) features clever use of moving montage.
Reality TV
Big Brother, I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! and Love Island, all use documentary techniques.
GROUND-BREAKING DOCUMENTARIES
NANOOK OF THE NORTH (1922)
Nanook of the North is a silent documentary film (and considered the first feature-length documentary) from 1922 directed by Robert J. Flaherty, that shows us the lives of the Inuk, living in the Canadian arctic - focusing on a man called Nanook and his family.
It was shot near Inukjuak, on Hudson Bay in Northern Quebec, Canada. Flaherty was familiar with the area as he had already filmed there before, but the footage was lost in a fire. He began again in August 1920, eventually resulting in this film.
The film accurately contained a lot of the Inuit methods of hunting, fishing and igloo building etc, surprising and very exotic to normal colonizers. As well as this, it also carried with it the true story of a man and his family surviving there in the arctic.
This work was later criticised as Flaherty staged a lot of the scenes: the Inuits could have used guns while hunting but were encouraged to use spears; the wife shown in the film was not actually Nanook's wife; Nanook's real name was in fact Allakariallak and he died of tuberculosis 2 years after the film was made, where Flaherty said he died of starvation to exaggerate the points made in the documentary.
BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE (2002)
Directed, produced, written and narrated by Michael Moore. It explores what he suggests are the causes for the Columbine High School massacre and other similar events with guns.
The "bowling" part of the title comes mainly from the theory that the two students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were in a bowling class before they took part in the shooting. It is also incorporated into other parts of the film.
The film features montages, notably one to "Happiness is a Warm Gun - the Beatles" which features clips of people buying and using guns and then people people getting shot and committing suicide, and one to "What a Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong" featuring American foreign policy decisions being made, with a transcript.
Moore compares situation with guns in America to that in Canada, weapons of mass destruction and looks at the way children are brought up - violence in television, cinema and video games.
The film was criticised in a few ways. When Moore gets a free gun from the bank he is handed it there, but in other cases they would have been shipped and checks would have been conducted. Garance Franke-Ruta criticised Moore for ignoring the role that municipal governance plays in crime in the US - not a lot of the killers and victims were the type of people Moore talked about. Moore was criticized for his "perceived ambush" of Charlton Heston, asking if he would like to apologise for certain things.
However, it has won numerous awards and helped Moore stand out as a rising filmmaker.