ABSTRACT
The label of documentary hybrids refers to an emergent current within documentary filmmaking that mixes fictional and non-fictional footage without clearly identifying or labelling either. These films purposefully leave their audience in a state of uncertainty over the factual status of what they are watching. Even though documentary hybrids have only been consolidating as practice during the last two decades, their origins are as old as documentary itself. The perception of a filmic sequence as fictional or non-fictional is a complex process, which involves factors that are sometimes entirely external to the film itself, such the context of screening. An important practitioner of hybrid filmmaking is Werner Herzog, who famously refuses to acknowledge essential differences between his documentary work and the rest of his production.
