Research into "Mockumentaries"

A Mockumentary is a film/programme in which fictitious events are presented in a documentary format. They are often either comic or dramtic form, however comic mockumentaries are more prevalent.


Of our generation, one of the most famous mockumentaries is Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. This film follows Borat Sagdiyev, a TV personality to USA to create a documentary film. It had very mixed reactions, however it proved popular due to its extreme silliness. This was a feature-length film and was released in cinemas.


On the television, there are programmes that are similarly mockumentaries. For example, the most popular ones on British TVinclude The Office and Little Britain. They follow the day-to-day lives of certain characters.

An Australian comedian named Chris Lilley has created and starred in a few mockumentaries. The most popular one was Summer Heights High in which he played a number of characters that the documentary followed through their day-to-day lives. These proved to be extremely popular, winning them a Logie Award. These were hour long episodes that ran for about 8 episodes per series. The aspects that made it so funny were that the characters' personalities and behaviour was extremely funny to watch and I believe that many viewers may be able to relate.


Below is a clip from the show Summer Heights High where the audience is introduced to the character Jonah.

Introducing Jonah


One of my favourite mockumentaries that I came across when research for Short Mockumentaries was that of the video below. It's called The Majestic Plastic Bag and it's a mock wildlife documentary, following the life a plastic bag. It's not unti lthe very end that it is revealed that it's actually a video trying to raise awareness in rubbish in the Pacific Ocean. I think it's an extremely well done short film, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching it.

 
Another short mockumentary that I came across was the one below called Parking Patrol. It's about a girl who spends her time putting comment cards on people's badly parked vehicles in an attempt to make them park better next time. I like the idea of this, it's simple and an actual problem that viewers can relate to.





Parking Patrol - A Mini-Mockumentary from Liz Brownback on Vimeo.