A mockumentary (a portmanteau of mock and documentary) is a type of film or television programme depicting fictional events, but presented as a documentary. Mockumentaries are often used to analyse or comment on current events and issues in a satirical way by using a fictional setting, or to parody the documentary form itself. The term originated in the 1960s but was popularised in the mid-1990s when This Is Spinal Tap director Rob Reiner used it in interviews to describe that film.
While mockumentaries are comedic, pseudo-documentaries are their dramatic equivalents. Pseudo-documentary should not be confused with docudrama, a fictional genre in which dramatic techniques are combined with documentary elements to depict real events. Nor should either of those be confused with docufiction, a genre in which documentaries are contaminated with fictional elements.
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