Mockumentary

A mockumentary (or mocumentary or mock-documentary) is popularly understood to be a fictional audiovisual text, such as a feature film or television program, that looks and sounds like a documentary. These texts feature fictional characters and events that appear to have been “captured” on location and through interviews by a documentary film crew. The term mockumentary was first widely used to describe the fake rockumentary This Is Spinal Tap (1984; Rob Reiner, director), and is often assumed by commentators to refer only to similarly parodic or satiric material. Because of the range of material that now falls under this label, however, it is more useful to consider mockumentary as a discourse that is characterized by the appropriation of codes and conventions from the full continuum of nonfiction and fact-fiction forms. A mockumentary might borrow from the codes and conventions of documentary, fact-fiction texts such as nature documentary, the wide variety of television factual-based formats such as reality game shows and docusoaps, or from traditional nonfiction forms including newsreels, news bulletins, and current affairs programs.

Mockumentary has been applied toward a variety of ends; from being used as a gimmick or novelty style (e.g., single episodes of the popular television programs M*A*S *H* [1976], ER [1997], X-Files [2000], and The West Wing [2009]) through to dramatic productions that might appear to be a documentary investigation of a political assassination (Death of a President [2006; Gabriel Range, director]), the video diary of a high school massacre (Zero Days [2003; Ben Coccio, director]), or the home movie of an alien invasion (Cloverfield [2008; Matt Reeves, director]). Mockumentary is not limited to cinematic or televisual productions; an early example of mockumentary is the infamous 1939 radio version of War of the Worlds developed by Orson Welles’s theatrical troupe that transformed H. G. Wells’s science fiction classic into an apparent breaking news bulletin.