Mockumentary
A fictional work that imitates documentary conventions, such as interviews and observational camerawork, for comic, critical, or dramatic effect.
Talking-head interview: An interview shot in which a person addresses an off-camera interviewer or speaks directly to the camera. Mockumentaries use staged interviews to deliver exposition, contradiction, and comic self-presentation.
The War of the Worlds (1938 radio drama): A radio adaptation of H. G. Wells’s novel, broadcast by the Mercury Theatre on the Air in 1938. Its simulated news bulletins demonstrated how documentary-like presentation could make fiction seem real.
Best in Show: A 2000 comedy film by Christopher Guest following fictional contestants at a dog show. Its ensemble interviews turn niche enthusiasm and rivalry into observational comedy.
Documentary film: A nonfiction film that presents real people, events, or conditions through recorded images and sounds. Mockumentary adopts documentary techniques without making the same basic nonfiction claim.
Observational cinema: A documentary approach that records events with minimal visible intervention by the filmmaker. Handheld, apparently unobtrusive observation gives fictional scenes a sense of unplanned access.
Take the Money and Run: A 1969 comedy film written, directed by, and starring Woody Allen as a fictional criminal. Its mock interviews and archival-style material are an early feature-film use of documentary parody.
Borat: A 2006 comedy film starring Sacha Baron Cohen as a fictional Kazakh journalist traveling through the United States. Its staged protagonist collides with real-world encounters, complicating the boundary between fiction and documentary.
Docudrama: A dramatic work that reconstructs real events using actors and scripted scenes. Unlike docudrama, mockumentary typically invents its central events or subjects.
Found footage: A storytelling technique that presents a work as discovered recordings made by characters or witnesses. Some mockumentaries use an in-world camera crew or recordings to explain why footage exists.
The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash: A 1978 television film that parodies the Beatles through a fictional band and documentary-style biography. Its invented history and straight-faced interviews helped establish the music mockumentary.