Mockumentary

Mockumentary (portmanteau of mock documentary. Also, fictional documentary, false documentary) names a film and TV genre, or a single work of the genre. The mockumentary is presented as if it were a documentary, though it is not factual. It is a commonly used medium for parody and satire.

Related Topics:
Portmanteau - Genre - Documentary - Parody - Satire

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Mockumentaries are often presented as historical documentaries with b roll and talking heads discussing past events or as cinema verite pieces following people as they go through various events. Examples of this type of satire date back at least to the 1950s (a very early example was a short piece on the "Swiss Spaghetti Harvest" that appeared as an April fool's joke on the British television program Panorama in 1957), though the term "mockumentary" is thought to have first appeared in the mid-1980s when This is Spinal Tap director Rob Reiner used it in interviews to describe that film.

Related Topics:
B roll - Talking heads - Cinema verite - Satire - Spaghetti - April fool - Panorama - This is Spinal Tap - Rob Reiner

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The false documentary form has also been used for some dramatic productions (and precursors to this approach date back to the radio days and Orson Welles' The War of the Worlds).

Related Topics:
Orson Welles - The War of the Worlds

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