Mockumentary: History and Key Facts

A mockumentary (a portmanteau of mock and documentary) is a type of film or television programme depicting fictional events, but presented as a documentary. Mockumentaries are often used to analyse or comment on current events and issues in a satirical way by using a fictional setting, or to parody the documentary form itself. One of the most well known examples of the modern time is The Office. The term originated in the 1960s but was popularised in the mid-1990s when This Is Spinal Tap director Rob Reiner used it in interviews to describe that film.

While mockumentaries are comedic, pseudo-documentaries are their dramatic equivalents. Pseudo-documentary should not be confused with docudrama, a fictional genre in which dramatic techniques are combined with documentary elements to depict real events. Nor should either of those be confused with docufiction, a genre in which documentaries are contaminated with fictional elements.

Mockumentaries are often presented as historical documentaries, with B roll and talking heads discussing past events, or as cinéma vérité pieces following people as they go through various events. Examples emerged during the 1950s when archival film footage became available. A very early example was a short piece on the "Swiss spaghetti harvest" that appeared as an April Fools' prank on the British television program Panorama in 1957.

Mockumentaries can be partly or wholly improvised.

Source and attribution

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