Reality and Fiction in Classical Hungarian Documentaries
Reality and Fiction in Classical Hungarian Documentaries

Summary/Abstract: Closer scrutiny of international classical documentaries (Nanook, Land without Bread, Spanish Earth, etc.) has put big question marks behind the traditional (or naïve?) concepts of documentation and reality, as if any theorist looking for documentary could only find fiction. On the other hand, the ‘non-existing’ documentary is flourishing, both in the commercial media and the art houses. Cinema-goers or TV-viewers (though not all of them) seem to appreciate something special in these offerings. The aim of this essay is to analyze some of the classical Hungarian documentaries from Höllering to Schiffer, Ember and Gulyás: do the artistic methods they used, the documentarists’ discipline and ethics they followed offer us some useful clues to the contemporary discussion about the essence of documentary filmmaking?

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