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Docudrama

A docudrama is a hybrid genre that combines elements of documentaries with narrative elements of a melodrama. A docudrama combines reality with fiction. The concept originates from a communication studies perspective. The term docudrama is often used for a one-off presentation, such as a single episode. Thematically, a docudrama deals with real events or historical figures from the recent past. Through the presentation, a version of history is offered to be understood. Similar to a melodrama, a docudrama stimulates the viewer's own feelings and plays with emotions. For this, the use of music and light is very important. A docudrama has an ethical and moral effect on the audience, as they learn something about history through the reception of the docudrama. It ends with an appeal to morality and the reappraisal of the events. As in telenovelas de la memoria, authenticity is achieved by incorporating historical material, such as archival and pictorial material or props that relate to the period shown. Real places can serve as filming locations or places that are recreated true to reality. A docudrama thus stimulates the viewer's own memories of the time shown and plays with the hybrid arrangement of real and fictional elements. Cinematically, a voice-over is often used, an off-screen voice that narrates the events from the perspective of a third person, as for example in the trailer.

Find more information about docudrama:

- Antezana Barrios, Lorena: “Docudramas televisivos como vehículos de memorias generacionales”, in: Simone Maria Rocha und Rogério Ferraz (Hrsg.): Análise da ficção televisiva. Metologias e práticas. Florianópolis 2019, S. 223-244

- Santos, Alexandre Tadeu dos: Afinal, o que é docudrama? Um estudo do gênero a partir da telenovela brasileira. São Paulo 2013

- Lipkin, Steven N.: Docudrama Performs the Past. Arenas of Argument in Films based on True Stories. Newcastle upon Tyne: 2011.

- Lipkin, Steven N. Real Emotional Logic: Film and Television Docudrama as Persuasive Practice / Steven N. Lipkin. 2002.