The Poetic Mode

"The poetic mode of documentary film tends toward subjective interpretations of its subject(s). Light on rhetoric, documentaries in the poetic mode forsake traditional narrative content: individual characters and events remain undeveloped, in favor of creating a particular mood or tone. This is particularly noticeable in the editing of poetic documentaries, where continuity is of virtually no consequence at all."

In documentary, the poetic mode is a highly artful form of film. It purposefully creates an intentional emotion that it wants the audience to feel using carefully chosen imagery and music. 

Examples:

• Rain (Ivens, 1929)
• Berlin: The Symphony of a Great City (Ruttmann, 1927)
• The Man with the Movie Camera (Vertov, 1929)

The Expository Mode

"Narration is a distinct innovation of the expositional mode of documentary. Initially manifesting as an omnipresent, omniscient, and objective voice intoned over footage, narration holds the weight of explaining and arguing a film’s rhetorical content. Where documentary in the poetic mode thrived on a filmmaker’s aesthetic and subjective visual interpretation of a subject, expositional mode collects footage that functions to strengthen the spoken narrative."

Examples:

• An Inconvenient Truth (Guggenheim, 2006)
• Recollecting Tibet (Stowe, 2008)
• Ways of Seeing (TV Series, Berger, 1974)

The Observational Mode

"Unlike the subjective content of poetic documentary, or the rhetorical insistence of expositional documentary, observational documentaries tend to simply observe, allowing viewers to reach whatever conclusions they may deduce. The camera, while moving with subjects and staying in the action, remains as unobtrusive as possible, mutely recording events as they happen."

Examples:

• High School (Wiseman, 1968)
• Don't Look Back (Pennebaker, 1967)
• Triumph of the Will (Riefenstahl, 1934)

The Reflexive Mode

"The reflexive mode considers the quality of documentary itself, de-mystifying its processes and considering its implications."

Reflexive consistently draws attention to itself, highlighting how the camera is portraying the subject matter to its audience and asking them to question it. 

Examples:

• Man With a Movie Camera (Vertov, 1929)
• Land Without Bread (Buñuels, 1989)
• Wedding Camels (MacDougall, 1980)

The Participatory Mode

This mode emphasises interaction between the filmmaker and the subject infusing the opinions of the documentary journalist to skew the interpretation that the audience makes. It makes sure that the presence of the filmmaker alters the outcome of what the audience choose to interpret. 

Examples:

• All Michael Moore films: Bowling for Columbine (2002), Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)
• Louis Theroux films: The Most Hated Family in America (2007) 

The Performative Mode

"The performative mode, the final mode Nichols discusses, is easily confused with the participatory mode, and Nichols remains somewhat nebulous about their distinctions. The crux of the difference seems to lie in the fact that where the participatory mode engages the filmmaker to the story but attempts to constructs truths that should be self-evident to anyone, the performative mode engages the filmmaker to the story but constructs subjective truths that are significant to the filmmaker him or herself. Deeply personal, the performative mode is particularly well-suited to telling the stories of filmmakers from marginalised social groups, offering the chance to air unique perspectives without having to argue the validity of their experiences."

Similar to the participatory mode, it uses a main protagonist to portray the narrative of the film. But the performative mode shows a much more emotional journey for the filmmaker, making his experiences during the story just as important as the subject matter he is experiencing. 

Examples:

• Night and Fog (Resnais, 1955)
• Forest of Bliss (Gardner, 1985)
• Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives (BBC Production, 2007)