A Survey on the Structure of Expository Documentary

Expository mode in documentary film making emerged from Grierson documentary movement in the 1930s and by adopting “Voice of God” commentary model, it served educational and propaganda purposes. This mode of documentary film, being both in rhetoric or argumentative form, addresses its viewer through a narrator. Due to technical and aesthetic developments in the process of television’s evolution, it has been widely used as a popular mode for documentaries since late 1950s. In Iran, however, this mode has not been very well known; most cinema and television producers and directors who approached this kind of documentary, have failed in appealing to a broad audience because they were not familiar with capacities and trends of this documentary mode. Therefore, they have maintained to archetype methods. Hence, the aim of this research is to take a new look at the structure of "Expository Documentary” and propose ways on how can this mode be appropriately applied in TV. This research has been done with the aim of recognizing structural and aesthetic features of expository documentary, considering its content wise capacities and how to utilize them in episodic and non-episodic TV programs. Beside the mentioned aspects, some up to date & eminent samples of expository documentaries produced by distinguished TV networks have been observed & studied through their structure.