Editing Documentary film (section)

=== 1920s ===

==== Romanticism ====
[[File:Nanook of the north.jpg|thumb|''[[Nanook of the North]]'' poster]]
With [[Robert J. Flaherty]]'s ''[[Nanook of the North]]'' in 1922, documentary film embraced [[romanticism]]. Flaherty filmed a number of heavily staged romantic documentary films during this time period, often showing how his subjects would have lived 100 years earlier and not how they lived right then. For instance, in ''Nanook of the North'', Flaherty did not allow his subjects to shoot a walrus with a nearby shotgun, but had them use a harpoon instead. Some of Flaherty's staging, such as building a roofless [[igloo]] for interior shots, was done to accommodate the filming technology of the time.

[[Paramount Pictures]] tried to repeat the success of Flaherty's ''Nanook'' and ''Moana'' with two romanticized documentaries, ''[[Grass (1925 film)|Grass]]'' (1925) and ''[[Chang (film)|Chang]]'' (1927), both directed by [[Merian C. Cooper]] and [[Ernest Schoedsack]].

==== City symphony ====

{{Main|City symphony}}
The "''[[city symphony]]''" sub [[film genre]] consisted of [[avant-garde films]] during the 1920s and 1930s. These films were particularly influenced by [[modern art]], namely [[Cubism]], [[Constructivism (art)|Constructivism]], and [[Impressionism]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title = A History of Experimental Film and Video|last = Rees|first = A.L.|publisher = Palgrave Macmillan|year = 2011|isbn = 978-1-84457-436-0|edition = 2nd}}</ref> According to [[art historian]] and author [[Scott MacDonald (media scholar)|Scott MacDonald]],<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Avant-Doc: Eight Intersections.|journal=Film Quarterly|volume=64|issue=2|pages=50–57|last=MacDonald|first=Scott|author-link=Scott MacDonald (media scholar)|date=2010|language=en|jstor=10.1525/fq.2010.64.2.50|doi=10.1525/fq.2010.64.2.50}}</ref> city symphony films can be described as, "An intersection between documentary and avant-garde film: an ''avant-doc''"; however, A.L. Rees suggests regarding them as avant-garde films.<ref name=":0" />

Early titles produced within this genre include: ''[[Manhatta]]'' (New York; dir. [[Paul Strand]], 1921); ''[[Rien que les heures]]/Nothing But The Hours'' ([[French films|France]]; dir. [[Alberto Cavalcanti]], 1926); ''Twenty Four Dollar Island'' (dir. [[Robert J. Flaherty]], 1927); ''Moscow'' (dir. [[Mikhail Kaufman]], 1927); ''[[Études sur Paris]]'' (dir. [[André Sauvage]], 1928); ''[[De brug|The Bridge]]'' (1928) and ''[[Rain (1929 film)|Rain]]'' (1929), both by [[Joris Ivens]]; ''[[São Paulo, Sinfonia da Metrópole]]'' (dir. [[Adalberto Kemeny]], 1929), ''[[Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis]]'' (dir. [[Walter Ruttmann]], 1927); ''[[Man with a Movie Camera]]'' (dir. [[Dziga Vertov]], 1929); ''[[Douro, Faina Fluvial]]'' (dir. [[Manoel de Oliveira]], 1931); and ''[[Rhapsody in Two Languages]]'' (dir. [[Gordon Sparling]], 1934).

A city symphony film, as the name suggests, is most often based around a major [[metropolis|metropolitan city]] area and seeks to capture the life, events and activities of the city. It can use [[Abstract expressionism|abstract]] cinematography (Walter Ruttman's ''Berlin'') or may use [[Soviet montage theory]] (Dziga Vertov's, ''Man with a Movie Camera'').  Most importantly, a city symphony film is a form of [[cinepoetry]], shot and edited in the style of a "[[symphony]]".

[[File:Mikhail kaufman on train.jpg|thumb|In this shot from ''[[Man with a Movie Camera]]'', [[Mikhail Kaufman]] acts as a cameraman risking his life in search of the best shot.]]

The European continental tradition (''See:'' [[Realism (theatre)|Realism]]) focused on humans within human-made environments, and included the so-called city symphony films such as Walter Ruttmann's, ''Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis'' (of which [[John Grierson|Grierson]] noted in an article<ref>Grierson, John. 'First Principles of Documentary', in Kevin Macdonald & Mark Cousins (eds.) Imagining Reality: The Faber Book of Documentary. London: Faber and Faber, 1996</ref> that ''Berlin,'' represented what a documentary should not be); Alberto Cavalcanti's, ''Rien que les heures;'' and Dziga Vertov's ''Man with a Movie Camera''. These films tend to feature people as products of their environment, and lean towards the avant-garde.

==== ''Kino-Pravda'' ====
[[Dziga Vertov]] was central to the Soviet ''[[Kino-Pravda]]'' (literally, "cinematic truth") newsreel series of the 1920s. Vertov believed the camera{{snd}}with its varied lenses, shot-counter shot editing, time-lapse, ability to slow motion, stop motion and fast-motion{{snd}}could render reality more accurately than the human eye, and created a film philosophy from it.

==== Newsreel tradition ====
The [[newsreel]] tradition is important in documentary film. Newsreels at this time were sometimes staged but were usually re-enactments of events that had already happened, not attempts to steer events as they were in the process of happening. For instance, much of the battle footage from the early 20th century was staged; the cameramen would usually arrive on site after a major battle and re-enact scenes to film them.