Participatory Documentaries

Participatory documentaries involve the filmmaker playing an active role both on and off camera, it includes direct engagement between the filmmaker and the subjects. This engagement often comes in the form of an interview where the filmmaker is seen on camera questioning the people involved in the topic in order to find out more in a more personal way. Typical features of a participatory documentary are using a hand held camera, this is used to make the documentary seem more personal and make it obvious that the filmmaker is there personally and is fully involved. Another feature includes the use of a voice over, this is often the filmmakers voice which again makes it obvious that they are fully involved in all aspects of the documentary. Often the filmmaker plays a centre role in the documentary, whereas the topic may not be about them personally they usually appear more than the subjects involved with the topic but are ultimately used to communicate with them in order to find out more. An example of this is Super Size Me, in the documentary the filmmaker himself took on the challenge of eating only McDonalds for 30 days rather than following other people that may eat McDonalds everyday, therefore the filmmaker is playing an active role in the documentary making it a participatory documentary.