Non-fiction film genre that uses footage of real events
Place des Cordeliers à Lyon (1895), a film by Louis Lumière which shows a street in Lyon, France
Actuality film is a non-fiction film genre that uses footage of real events, places, and things (essentially B-roll), a predecessor to documentary film. Unlike documentaries, actuality films are not structured into a larger narrative or coherent whole. During the era of early cinema, actualities—usually lasting no more than a minute or two and usually assembled together into a program by an exhibitor—were just as popular and prominent as their fictional counterparts.[1] The line between "fact" and "fiction" was not as prominent in early cinema as it would become once documentaries became the predominant non-fiction filmmaking form. Actuality as a film genre is related to still photography.
Although actuality films largely ceased production around 1908, the term "actuality footage" is sometimes used in documentary production to refer to the raw footage.
^"The Actuality Film". Before and After the Great Earthquake and Fire: Early Films of San Francisco, 1897 to 1916. Library of Congress.
Actualityfilm is a non-fiction film genre that uses footage of real events, places, and things (essentially B-roll), a predecessor to documentary film...
practice without clear boundaries". Early documentary films, originally called "actualityfilms", briefly lasted for one minute or less. Over time, documentaries...
stories and artificial sets. Documentaries are not pure actualityfilms - rather they combine actuality with explanation, commentary, and perhaps even dramatization...
experimentation with fiction filmmaking (both in actualityfilm and other genres) did occur. Films were mostly screened inside temporary storefront spaces...
promotion Underground film – Film genre Action comedy – Film and TV genre Action film – Film genre Actualityfilm – Non-fiction film genre that uses footage...
produced by Edison Studios. A Sea Cave Near Lisbon, a British short silent actualityfilm, directed by Henry Short. Up the River, directed by Unknown. Alice Guy...
silent actuality short depicting the killing of the elephant Topsy by electrocution at a Coney Island amusement park. It was produced by the Edison film company...
Collection, the largest surviving collection of early non-fiction actualityfilms in the world. This collection provides a fresh view of Edwardian era...
Pelicans at the Zoo is an 1898 British short black-and-white silent actualityfilm, produced by British Mutoscope & Biograph Company, featuring pelicans...
Girls Taking Time Checks is a 1904 silent actualityfilm photographed by G. W. Bitzer for the Biograph Company in conjunction with Westinghouse Electric...
was largely undesirable by most narrative filmmakers. The makers of Actualityfilms were much more eager to undertake this method, however, in order to...
Division, who return them to their base. Ritter reveals that Rachel was in actuality a double agent and one of their most loyal assets for the Division, after...
development of documentary film worldwide. Grierson, in particular, pioneered not only a highly influential theory of "actuality" film, but developed structures...
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