1877: Eadweard Muybridge develops sequential photographs of horses in motion. Muybridge subsequently invents the zoöpraxiscope in 1879, a device for projecting and "animating" his photographic images.
Works by Muybridge in the Media Resources Center (MRC):
- Movies Begin: Vol. I: Motion Studies (1877-85). MRC call number: DVD 1096
1883: Etienne Jules Marey experiments with chronophotography, the photography of people in movement
1919: Russian filmmaker Dziga Vertov issues a manifesto (Kinoks-Revolution Manifesto) calling for a new style of cinéma tic reportage that documents real life. Vertov criticizes the Soviet film industry for relying on the same fictional techniques employed by literature and theater. In his manifesto, Vertov equates contemporary Russian "film drama" with religion, both of which he considers "opium of the masses." Rather than relying on fanciful scripts and artificial acting, Vertov insists that the future of cinéma depends on reporting the truth. In 1922, he begins to produce Kino Pravda (literally "Film Truth"), a series of news reportage films that foreshadows both later newsreels and later documentary styles, including cinéma vérité .
1920’s: Various European experimental filmmakers begin to work in styles that incorporate avant-garde cinéma tic filming and editing techniques (such as fluid camera work and montage) and abstract narratives to create impressionistic, highly poetic quasi-documentary works (or "visual poems"). These works include various "city films," such as Walther Ruttmann’s Berlin: A Symphony of a Great City (Berlin, die Symphonie der Grosstadt) (1927) and Alberto Cavalcanti’s Rien que les heures (1926).
- Berlin: A Symphony of a Great City. MRC call number: DVD 64
- Rien que les heures. MRC call number: 999:2989
1928: John Grierson joins the British Empire Marketing Board (EMB), a governmental agency, and organizes the E.M.B. Film Unit. In the EMB, and later in his work with the film unit of the British General Post Office, Grierson gathered around him a group of talented and energetic filmmakers, including Edgar Anstey, Sir Arthur Elton, Stuart Legg, Basil Wright, Humphrey Jennings, Harry Watt, and Alberto Cavalcanti.
1930-37: The Worker's Film and Photo League is formed in the US (subsequently transformed into Nykino in 1934, and finally into Frontier Films in 1937) with the purpose of making independent documentaries with a politically and socially progressive viewpoint. Members include Paul Strand, Ralph Steiner, Leo Hurwitz, Willard Van Dyke, and Joris Ivens.
1961: The one-hour documentary Harvest of Shame is aired on CBS TV on November 25th as part of the CBS Reports series. Produced by Edward R. Murrow and Fred Friendly, Harvest of Shameprovides an investigative look the plight of the U.S. migratory worker and is the first of what one hostile reviewer of the program terms "shame-of-America documentaries" on television.1973: PBS series, An American Family, the precursor of what would later be called "reality TV" shows, provides a close-up, vérité view of Loud family. Directed by Alan and Susan Raymond, the twelve-episode series captures the most intimate details of the family's life, including the parents' divorce proceedings and the New York lifestyle of their gay son. The series stuns American audiences accustomed to "Leave it to Beaver" television families.
1975: Sony introduces the Betamax consumer videocassette recorder (VCR) (cost: $2295)
1976: JVC introduces the VHS format VCR (cost: $885)
1980: Sony introduces the first consumer video camcorder.
1982: Sony's Betacam, a single-unit broadcast-use camera hits the market.
1984: Release of This is Spinal Tap, a hilarious vérité-style "mockumentary" about a fictional heavy metal band.
Filmmaker Ken Burns eleven-hour documentary series, The Civil War is aired on five consecutive nights on PBS. The series achieves the highest ratings ever for PBS, averaging more than 14 million viewers each evening.
1987: PBS series P.O.V. (Point of View) premieres. The program is dedicated to providing a showcase for independent documentary filmmakers with strong political or social points of view, as well as providing an opportunity for viewers to respond to the issues presented.
1988-1991: Congress passes legislation mandating the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to negotiate with a national coalition of independent film producer groups to establish the Independent Television Service (ITVS) to ensure that diverse voices be championed on public television. The board of directors of ITVS are selected by independent producers themselves. In the next decade, ITVS (based in San Francisco) underwrites hundreds of notable documentary works aired on PBS and elsewhere.
1991: On March 3rd amateur videographer George Holliday shoots a twelve-minute videotape of Los Angeles police arresting and beating Rodney King after a high-speed chase. The Holliday tape is shown so often on CNN and other television channels that one CNN executive calls it "wallpaper."
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