Mockumentary

A relatively new type of film made in a documentary style (i.e. interviews, handheld camera, use of non-actors) in which the events are totally fictional. Almost always comedies, these films often get the biggest laughs by playing it straight. The best examples of the subgenre like This is Spinal Tap and Zelig never wink at the audience or let them in on the fictitious joke. Also a style of filmmaking, mockumentaries can be used within satire to skewer institutions or personalities. Tanner ‘88 and Bob Roberts are political satires that behaved as mockumentaries, while Waiting for Guffman and Albert Brooks's Real Life used the form to mock small-town life and suburbia, respectively. Internationally, examples can be seen in Fellini's Intervista, a showbiz spoof, and in the black comedy Man Bites Dog.

significant works

movies