Auguste and Louis Lumière are seen as the earliest filmmakers in history, their first film being screened to a private audience in 1895. Because of technological limitations of only having 50ft long film reels the brothers' films consisted of single-shot moments, the first one being of factory workers leaving a factory (seen below). These films were called 'actuality' films because they captured scenes from 'actual' events, the word 'documentary' was not around until 1926.
Early 20th Century
From 1900 - 1920 travelogue films (exploratory and ethnographic films that were used to provide the general public with a means of observing different countries and cultures) became very popular. This is because these films let the general public view something that they would otherwise never be able to experience, such as the film 'In the Land of the Head Hunters' (1914) which provided truthful re-enactments of the livews of Native Americans.
Nanook of the North: A Story Of Life
and Love In the Actual Arctic) is
a 1922 silent 'docudrama' film by Robert J. Flaherty. The film is considered the first feature-length documentary and is
the earliest example that shows many similarities to modern documentaries,
however, many scenes were staged to make them more dramatic so were not true to
nature - hence the term 'docudrama'. The film captures the struggles of
the Inuk Nanook and his family in the Canadian Arctic.
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