The first ever documentary was filmed in 1877 by Eadweard Muybridge. It was called ‘The horse in motion’, and it focused around the myth that horses lifted all four legs of the ground when they ran. The documentary itself would look extremely basic to us in this century, but back in 177 the small series of images created the pathway to documentaries we know an love today. Pre 1900, these films were called ‘actuality’ films, with the term documentary not being coined until 1926.
The documentary is now the most popular genre in the UK, according to recent studies, one in every five films made in the UK is a documentary. With that being said, the money spent on documentary production is considerably lower than any other film genre, perhaps because the vast majority of documentaries are independent productions.
The number of documentaries released in the UK is considerably higher compared to the few that were being released in 2001-2013. But, documentaries only make up about 1% of the UK’s overall box office; even DVD sales of documentaries are only 0.6% of physical film sales (2013).
It is important to note the significant difference between the amount of time documentaries spend in the cinema, compare to major box office films. This, along with the added pressure from streaming services such as Netflix and BBC iPlayer, might play a major role in our under exposure to documentaries within the UK.
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