What Filmmaking Movements did Direct Cinema Define?

Direct Cinema, a form of filmmaking that seeks to mirror that of real life production became popular in the 1960s following the French movement of cinema verite. Since then, documentarians have used a variety of similar techniques in order to achieve the outcomes of the fly-on-the-wall or fly-in-the-soup approach to filmmaking such that the idea is to capture as much of a real life event as possible with minimal interruption from the Director when filming. Certainly, direct cinema has defined a number of filmmaking movements including shifts towards found footage, faux documentary comedy, and other mainstream documentary style filmmaking and we’re breaking them all down.

Frequently described as the US equivalent of the French movement widely recognized as cinema verite, direct cinema was popularized in America in 1960s with the introduction of several documentary style productions. Since then many films that have a direct cinematic approach have evolved and hit mainstream including those that used handheld cameras, lo-tech approaches, and even the introduction of over-exposed stock footage to form mainstream fiction. 

Found Footage Horror Films

You might recognize many of the same features in found footage films that were popular in direct cinema. Several found footage horror films have been produced since the introduction of direct cinema in 1960.  The following films produced since the 1960s featured found footage in a horror style:

• Cannibal Holocaust (1981)
• The Connection (1961)
• The Blair Witch Project (1999)
• Paranormal Activity (2009)

Documentaries Born out of Direct Cinema

Direct cinema is behind the filmmaking of a number of documentaries. In fact, direct cinema became an incredibly popular style for documentarians.  You might recall some of the following documentaries that utilized the direct cinema approach:

• Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (1963)
• The Mills of the Gods: View Nam (1965)
• Salesman (1969)
• Grey Gardens (1976)
• Brothers’ Keeper (1992)

Faux Documentary Comedy

Frequently referred to as the mockumentary, the faux documentary comedy is a form of docucomedy that depicts fictional events that are presented in the form of a documentary that appears realistic. Most of the time, mockumentaries are presented in the form of a historical documentary using the direct cinema format. You might recall the following mockumentaries:

• Best in Show (2000)
• The Big Tease (1999)
• Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)
• District 9 (2009)

Certainly direct cinema has resulted in a number of other cinematic styles that have evolved and which use similar approaches to the early low-tech, real-life approach that was popular with direct cinema. Not only are the above films largely representative of the direct cinematic approach, they incorporate a variety of styles and techniques from more recent cinema as well.