Bill Nichols has classified documentary films under the following categories, reflexive, interactive, expositional and observational. What do you understand by each of these terms? Discuss critically a documentary exemplifying one of these categories.

From the first documented recording of Venus passing across the sun in 1874 by a French astronomer to ‘Welcome to Australia’ (2000), the four modes of representation have come a long way through sets of conventions that runs historically and diachronically. In documentary film styles or the four modes of representation, Bill Nichols (1991, p. 32) distinguishes them as expository, observational, interactive and reflexive. He states that ‘these categories are partly the work of the analyst or critic and partly the product of documentary itself’ (Nichols 1991, p. 32). But yet, traces of them dominating documentary film will appear in different constellations.

Expository Mode

The fundamental aim of expository documentary is to deliver a message by laying out a particular story followed by the unfolding of it. It acknowledges and addresses the spectator to tell him a story about the world. This kind of mode has been the basic way of relating information since the 1920s. The ea...