ABSTRACT
It was the documentary film-maker John Grierson who coined the contemporary use of the term documentary, which he described as ‘the creative treatment of actuality’. As we have seen in previous chapters the idea of realism is a rather slippery commodity and this equally applies to actuality. Not only is actuality a very loose term, but we might recognise a sliding scale which runs from actuality through to fantasy (encountering such terms as opinion, viewpoint and impression along the way). Nonetheless, in taking a retrospective glance at Grierson’s films with reference to the categories established above, we find they conform to a strongly didactic approach, characterised by an overriding objective of educating and informing the viewer.
