John Grierson's Authenticity Of Documentaries

Documentaries have been present since the early days of cinema, even if this genre of movie did not have a name at the time, people still followed through with documenting the lives of those around them. While many experimented with filming the lives of familiar faces, others extended their reach to capture moments, people, environments that were unfamiliar to most. Viewers who witnessed films that explored life on this planet were able to believe in the reality of these various locations and people. The films gave an authentic view, one that came from the lives of real people. This authenticity that was formed in the past has not changed over the years. It remains similar as shown in the writings of John Grierson as well as Spence and Navarro’s.

Cameras contribute to this form as they are used to capture life as it is happening. In this genre of film, the camera is not meant to be an object that interferes with the life it is capturing, rather one that observes. By being an object that only observes, it gives meaning that life would continue, with or without the camera there. “…documentaries usually claim that those events did take place in such a way, and that the images and sounds on the screen are accurate and relatable. They speak about actualities and show us people who in some sense share-or once shared-the world we live in,” (Spence and Navarro 13). By claiming these events have a human aspect to them, viewers are able to view the lives of others. To be authentic, the scenes captured are not to be reconstructed in any form as that loses its value, since it is difficult to preform such actions again and be as genuine as the original. This will be able to give us a representation of the real world rather than a fictional

Documentaries are used to give us a peek into the lives of others while also informing us about the world. Rather than telling a story about fictional characters, viewers are able to see into the lives of people who exist or have left their mark in the world in some way. “Of course, Moana being a visual account of events in the daily life of a Polynesian youth and his family, has documentary value,” (Grierson 25). Grierson gives his account on the film known as Moana. How he found it not only beautiful, but also how it is considered to be an authentic documentary of its