ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author describes the fantastic last Al Maysles' film In Transit as a great Essay film, no narration or voice of God, often with interviews so not an observational documentary; it doesn't fit neatly into a category. The phenomenal documentary 13th, by Ava Duvernay, is the latest from these exceptional thematic issue documentarians and he argue are, Essay films. The author warns us to "avoid the stereotype of the documentary as a hearty gruel of talking heads and archival footage, spooned out as artlessly as the school lunches A Place at the Table criticizes."The documentary producer Adam Curtis doesn't shoot any original footage, and instead uses archive footage from the BBC library to construct his films. There is a huge breadth of genres of documentary. The prolific Nick Broomfield and Louis Theroux straddle genres as they immerse themselves as characters in their films that aren't personal in nature.
