a non-fiction (factual), narrative film with real people (not performers or actors); typically, a documentary is a low- budget, journalistic record of an event, person, or place; a documentary film-maker should be an unobtrusive observer - like a fly-on-the-wall, capturing reality as it happens; aka doc or docu; also called direct cinema; one type is termed docudrama; contrast with cinema verite andmockumentary