Bill Nichols

 

Bill Nichols is an American Film critic best known for his pioneering work as founder of the contemporise study of documentary film. He also created the 6 modes of Documentary film: Poetic, expository, observational, participatory, reflexive and performative Documentaries. 

Poetic Documentary: a story driven Documentary that arrives at its point from editing footage in order to evoke an audience association through Rhythm, Tone or spatial juxtaposition. 

Expository Documentary: constructs a point and argument usually conveyed my a strong authoritative   voiceover that expands further on the footage being shown. 

Observational documentary: The director simply lets the camera role uninterrupted getting the truth of what is actually happening.

Participatory Documentary: The opposite to Observational documentary where the director takes an active part of the Documentary.

Reflexive Documentary: reflexive documentary is not about the relationship with the filmmaker and the subject, but rather the filmmaker and the audience. Showing the man (or woman) behind the curtain to the audience should shake the core of the whole damned process of storytelling.

Performative Documentary: Showing up in the 1980s along with the reflexive sub-genre, the performative documentary emphasizes truth as relative, favouring a personal take over the objective lens.