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{{short description|Documentary genre that features fictional events}}
A '''pseudo-documentary''' or '''fake documentary''' is a film or video production that takes the form or style of a [[documentary film]] but does not portray real events. Rather, scripted and fictional elements are used to tell the story. The pseudo-documentary, unlike the related [[mockumentary]], is not always intended as satire or humor. It may use documentary camera techniques but with fabricated sets, actors, or situations, and it may use digital effects to alter the filmed scene or even create a wholly synthetic scene.<ref>{{cite book |title=Revisioning film traditions: the pseudo-documentary and the neoWestern |last=Jacobs |first=Delmar G. |publisher=Mellen Press |year=2000 |isbn=0773476490 |pages=55–56}}</ref><ref name=Jacobs2009>{{cite book |title=Interrogating the Image: Movies and the World of Film and Television |last=Jacobs |first=Delmar G. |publisher=University Press of America |year=2009 |isbn=978-0761846321 |pages=30, 188–194}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Pseudo-documentary: Form and Application in Narrative Feature Film |last=Jacobs |first=Delmar G. |publisher=University of South Florida |year=1997}}</ref>

==Film==
[[File:Orson-Welles-RKO.jpg|thumb|right|upright|[[Orson Welles]] made use of pseudo-documentary elements in his work.]]
[[Orson Welles]] gained notoriety with his [[radio show]] and [[hoax]] ''[[The War of the Worlds (radio drama)|War of the Worlds]]'' which fooled listeners into thinking the Earth was being invaded by Martians. Film critic [[Jonathan Rosenbaum]] says this is Welles' first pseudo-documentary.<ref>{{cite book |title=Discovering Orson Welles: Jonathan Rosenbaum |last=Rosenbaum |first=Jonathan |publisher=University of California Press |year=2007 |page=144 |isbn=978-0520247383}}</ref> Pseudo-documentary elements were subsequently used in his [[feature film]]s. For instance, Welles created a pseudo-documentary [[newsreel]] which appeared within his 1941 film ''[[Citizen Kane]]'', and he began his 1955 film, ''[[Mr. Arkadin]]'', with a pseudo-documentary prologue.<ref>Rosenbaum 2007, p. 133</ref>

[[Peter Watkins]] has made several films in the pseudo-documentary style. ''[[The War Game]]'' (1965), which reported on a fake nuclear bombing of England, was seen as so disturbingly realistic that the [[BBC]] chose not to broadcast it. The film won the [[Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature]]. Watkins' other such films include ''[[Punishment Park]]'' (1971) and ''[[La Commune (Paris, 1871)|La Commune]]'' (2002).

The film ''[[Mad Max 2]]'' first frames the story by showing a staged documentary-style sequence of images designed to inform the viewer that what follows is the aftermath of an apocalyptic global war.<ref name=Art>{{Cite book |title=Film art: an introduction |first1=David |last1=Bordwell |first2=Kristin |last2=Thompson |publisher=McGraw-Hill |year=2004 |isbn=0072484551 |page=[https://archive.org/details/filmartintro00bord/page/132 132] |edition=7 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/filmartintro00bord/page/132 }}</ref>

=== Fake-fiction ===
{{See also|Documentary film#Other forms}}
Related to, and in exact opposition to pseudo-documentary, is the notion of “fake-fiction”. A fake-fiction film takes the form of a staged, fictional movie, while actually portraying real, unscripted events.

The notion of fake-fiction was coined<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/feb/11/where-is-rocky-ii-ed-ruscha-mojave-desert-film-pierre-bismuth|title=Where is Rocky II? The 10-year desert hunt for Ed Ruscha's missing boulder|last=Campion|first=Chris|date=2015-02-11|newspaper=The Guardian|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077|access-date=2016-10-22}}</ref> by [[Pierre Bismuth]] to describe his 2016 film ''Where Is Rocky II?,'' which uses documentary method to tell a real, unscripted story, but is shot and edited to appear like a fiction film. The effect of this fictional aesthetic is precisely to cancel the sense of reality, making the real events appear as if they were staged or constructed.

Unlike [[mockumentary]], fake-fiction does not focus on satire, and in distinction with [[docufiction]], it does not re-stage fictional versions of real past events.

Another filmmaker whose work could be associated with the concept of fake-fiction is [[Gianfranco Rosi (director)|Gianfranco Rosi]]. For example, ''Below Sea Level''<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1270612/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 ''Below Sea Level'']</ref> uses the language of fiction cinema in its rendering of unscripted, documentary material. Of his own work, Rosi said, "I don’t care if I'm making a fiction film or documentary — to me it's a film, it's a narrative thing."<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.laweekly.com/film/fire-at-seas-gianfranco-rosi-on-the-art-of-finding-what-matters-7524229|title=''Fire at Sea''{{'}}s Gianfranco Rosi on the Art of Finding What Matters|last=Hynes|first=Eric|date=2016-10-24|newspaper=LA Weekly|language=en-USA|issn=0192-1940|access-date=2016-10-27}}</ref>

===Found or discovered footage===
{{Main article|Found footage (pseudo-documentary)}}
The term [[Found footage (pseudo-documentary)|found footage]] has sometimes been used to describe pseudo-documentaries where the plot involves the discovery of the film's footage. [[Found footage (appropriation)|Found footage]] is originally the name of an entirely different genre, but the magazine ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'', for example, used the term "faux found-footage film" to describe the 2012 film ''[[Grave Encounters 2]]''. The film scholar [[David Bordwell]] has criticized this recent use because of the confusion it creates, and instead prefers the term "discovered footage" for the narrative gimmick.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Bordwell|first=David|author-link=David Bordwell|date=13 November 2012|url=http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2012/11/13/return-to-paranormalcy/|title=Return to Paranormalcy|work=davidbordwell.net|access-date=24 May 2015}}</ref>

==Television==
Pseudo-documentary forms have appeared in television advertisements and [[campaign advertising]]. The [[Revolving Door (advertisement)|"Revolving Door"]] ad used in the [[1988 United States presidential election|US presidential campaign of 1988]] to attack candidate [[Michael Dukakis]] showed scripted scenes intended to look like documentary footage of men entering and exiting a prison through a revolving door.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zvfteL82ufMC&pg=PA521 |page=521 |title=Packaging The Presidency: A History and Criticism of Presidential Campaign Advertising |volume=3 |publisher=Oxford University Press |last=Jamieson |first=Kathleen Hall |year=1996 |isbn=0199879869}}</ref> Boston-based band [[the Del Fuegos]] appeared in a 1984 commercial for [[Miller Brewing Company|Miller]] beer, with scripted scenes shot in [[hand-held camera]]/pseudo-documentary style. The band was criticized for selling out and for the falseness of the commercial; founding member Warren Zanes said making the ad was a mistake, that their core audience turned away, and the larger audience gained by the exposure did not maintain interest for long.<ref>{{cite book |last=Zanes |first=Warren |chapter=Video and the Theater of Purity |pages=269–289 |title=Medium Cool: Music Videos from Soundies to Cellphones |editor=Roger Beebe, Jason Middleton |publisher=Duke University Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0822341390}}</ref>

[[Peter Greenaway]] employed pseudo-documentary style in his French television production ''Death on the Seine'' in 1988. He used fabricated scenes to reconstruct a historic event that was otherwise impossible to shoot, and portrayed it as reality.<ref>{{cite book |title=Documenting the Documentary: Close Readings of Documentary Film and Video |last=Grant |first=Barry Keith |publisher=Wayne State University Press |year=1998 |page=172 |isbn=0814326390 |volume=3 |series=Contemporary approaches to film and television}}</ref>

[[Reality television]] has been described as a form of pseudo-documentary.<ref>{{cite book |title=Reality-based Television as Pseudo-documentary |last=Elliott |first=Douglas Warren |publisher=University of Minnesota |year=1999}}</ref> An early and influential example is 1992's ''[[The Real World (TV series)|The Real World]]'' by [[MTV]], a [[scripted reality|scripted "reality"]] show bordering on [[soap opera]].<ref name=Calvert>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aSzqw713z1sC&pg=PA214 |page=214 |title=Voyeur Nation: Media, Privacy, and Peering Into Modern Culture |last=Calvert |first=Clay |publisher=Basic Books |year=2004 |isbn=0786747757 |series=Critical Studies in Communication and in Cultural Industries}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Docudrama]] – a dramatized documentary
* [[Docufiction]] – a documentary of fiction
* [[Mockumentary]] – a parodical or humorous fictional documentary

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

{{Film genres}}

[[Category:Documentaries]]
[[Category:Documentary film genres]]
[[Category:Fiction forms]]
[[Category:Film genres]]

Pseudo-documentary - Revision history

JJR: 1 revision imported: docu film types

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