ABSTRACT
Chapter 8 explores the documentary film in the context of film genre. It provides a historical overview of the documentary from the perspective of genre and weighs the pros and cons of considering documentary as a generic category. Several distinct documentary genres are identified, from phantom rides and scenics at the beginning of film history to modern rockumentaries. Conventions that are distinct to documentary such as the expert talking-head shot and voice-of-God narrator are identified, and questions of documentary authorship are discussed. The chapter concludes with a case study of Woodstock (1995), showing how it employs conventions unique to documentary as well as those of the film musical to present a view of the event as a utopian community.
