Documentary – Different from drama and fiction?

From Christine’s lecture, the requirements of characters, conflict, a journey, some kind of dramatic arc, a resolution and a theme was presented but raised an interesting question: is documentary different or not? When thinking about this question, this makes one think outside the course for a moment and helps honing ideas for what to make and create. In a documentary, shouldn’t we be manipulating the drama and the narrative to the audience? And in what way? As a documentarian, we are to a great degree in the hands of the material and the journey we seek to present is a different form. So when saying that documentary is different from drama and fiction I would say that it is this looser form that differentiates it from the two other genres, while it at the same time shares some of the same requirements. The looser form is also due to our expectations and it can be argued that documentary needs drama as we search for meaning and to understanding theme structure.