Modes of engagement in theatrical documentary

This research aims to chart four modes of engagement in post-verite documentary films, devoted to an exclusive examination of theatrical formats, that being those documentaries which are originally intended for a cinema audience. As these theatrical documentaries provide a means for spectators to see through the cinema screen and into the real world, it is important to understand how this 'seeing through' is constructed by the documentary production itself. This thesis acknowledges that the 'learning' of documentary stories and subjects has broadened for the global audience of today. After exploring various separate critiques of documentary voice theory, the definition of documentary and film semiotics, I have devised eight paradigms for creating this 'learning' or 'documentary consciousness' in these theatrical or cinema documentaries. I have explored how these eight paradigms can be observed to function in four different modes. These modes contribute to an evolving understanding of viewer comprehension; that thing called documentary consciousness. This is demonstrated through the audio-visual appendix of clips taken from the proto-typical theatrical documentaries I have chosen to analyse, which are: 'Bowling For Columbine' by Michael Moore (2003), which is illustrative of what I have dubbed the 'Outcome Mode'; 'Etre et Avoir' ('To Be And To Have') by Nicholas Philibert (2004), which exemplifies what I call the 'Participant Mode'; 'My Architect' by Nathaniel Kahn (2005), an example of the 'Journey Mode'; 'Baraka' by Magidson Films (1996), a model of the 'Mandala Mode'