Why have documentaries become so much more popular in recent years?

Thanks for the thoughtful response. I appreciate it.

That's an interesting idea of "blending business with pleasure." I suppose earlier documentaries didn't have the same reputation.

To be clear, there are a few standouts, like The Thin Blue Line. But obviously the art form has gained a significant amount of popularity in the 21st century, especially the last 15 years or so.

I love Ken's work and have watched several of his films. No doubt his work has been extremely well-received throughout his career.

But how many docs can you name, pre-2000, that made a huge splash?

Ken Burns is currently working on a documentary about Muhammad Ali. I'm looking forward to this one.

As much as I despise him, there's no doubt that some of Michael Moore's work has made a big cultural splash. I remember when Fahrenheit 9/11 came out it seemed like everyone had seen it and was talking about it.

Making a Murderer was certainly huge. Millions of people watched it, talked about it, debated it and further investigated. People even started harassing the prosecutor.

Before Making a Murderer, the Paradise Lost series was a big deal and did a lot to ignite interest in the West Memphis 3 case and to cause doubt about their guilt.

Blackfish was a good one that a lot of people saw and it was almost single-handedly responsible for huge changes being made at Sea World.

And as someone else mentioned earlier, all the way back in 1990, Ken Burns' The Civil War was a phenomenon.

You may be thinking of docudramas, where a historical event is dramatized and sometimes liberties are taken with the facts. A true documentary uses archival footage and interviews with people directly connected to the event.

I totally agree and was going to comment on the same thing. Even "true" documentaries are still made with an agenda. I remember in one of Michael Moore's films, might have been Bowling, and one interview there was a clock behind someone being interviewed that jumped around. So that conversation was totally edited to tell the story that Moore wanted to tell. There are plenty of examples of things like that. It's just like the internet where you can find someone or something to back up your opinion. It doesn't mean it's the truth or reality.

Isn't that what you're doing here, trying to create the impression that you're providing the 'real' story behind something, hypocrite? "Largely fiction" is so hyperbolic. Why don't you say what you really mean, that you see them as a mixture of truth and lies, a tactic that you've tried to apply but have not been very successful with?

Don't forget that people like to confirm their internal biases, and a documentary that validates something they want to be true is more likely to be watched than something that simply gives all the information known about something and allows the audience to make that decision.

I liked their recent 4-part doc on the Challenger disaster. That was well-done.

Good thoughts. I'm sure you're correct.

The digital revolution undoubtedly has a lot to do with the documentary explosion. Once films didn't have to be shot on actual film it made filmmaking in general so much more accessible. I'd say this really started with MiniDV, the first format that consumers had easy access that could produce results that looked more or less professional.