Fake Documentaries
Fake documentaries, sometimes called “mockumentaries” are a type of film that appears to be a real documentary film being made. In actuality, the film is a work of fiction. Sometimes elements in a fake documentary are real. An example of this is the film Borat. Borat was a mockumentary that followed the exploits of a Kazakh journalist as … Keep Reading → he traveled through the United States. Many of the people that the fictional Borat character encountered were real and did not know that the film was a joke. In fact, that was the whole joke of the movie; that real people were being fooled. Another classic example of the form is the “rockumentary” This is Spinal Tap. This movie followed the exploits of a fictional rock band. When the movie was first released people weren’t sure if it was serious or not. It has become a cult classic film. Christopher Guest, who starred in and co-wrote “Spinal Tap” revisited the mockumentary format in his later films A Mighty Wind, Waiting for Guffman, and Best in Show.
