Documentary Sub-Genres — Poetic vs. Expository

A Boulder, Colorado-based filmmaking professional with over 15 years of experience, Scott Klumb has served as the owner of SMK Media since 2012. Under Scott Klumb’s leadership, the Boulder, CO-firm has worked on projects for numerous clients and had films featured at international film festivals, where they have received a number of awards. The company focuses on sports, nature shots, and documentaries.

Poetic documentary and expository documentary are two contrasting sub-genres of documentary films. Poetic documentary is a type of documentary that leverages the power of visuals in creating meaning. In poetic documentary films, images are shown in rhythmic manner (sometimes with sound effects), but verbal communication is absent. There is no narrator or presenter, which means viewers interpret what is shown to them from their own perspective. Poetic documentaries are designed to welcome different viewpoints.

Expository documentary, on the other hand, is a documentary sub-genre that introduces specific information to viewers by narrating the story while concurrently depicting events. Viewers are expressly told what they need to know. The information is passed to viewers verbally, often through a background narration (voice of God) — a voice that virtually has no source. Expository documentary is what most people think of when they hear the word “documentary” since it is the most common sub-genre.