documentary art Written by Ralph Beliveau Contributor to SAGE Publications's The SAGE Encyclopedia of Journalism (2022) whose work appears in Britannica as part of a joint publishing agreement with SAGE. Ralph Beliveau Fact-checked by Britannica Editors Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... Britannica Editors Last updated Apr. 20, 2026 •History Documentaries are complex visual or audio storytelling forms that apply creative treatments to actuality, in the words of documentary pioneer John Grierson. Sometimes this definition has had a slightly different wording: the creative interpretation of actuality. The slight difference gives some sense of how elusive defining documentary can be. Despite the challenge, the consideration of how documentary can be defined both clarifies how we make sense of any single instance that bears the term documentary...

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