THE NEW WAVE OF AUTHORISED ACCESS DOCUMENTARIES

Once upon a time, the documentary was journalism's purest form. It was built on distance and discipline, not access or charm. Film-makers like Michael Moore and Molly Dineen treated the camera as a mirror for truth, not an accessory to fame.

- By: David Olajide

In Geri (1999), Director Dineen famously corrected Geri Halliwell's assumption that she could edit out unfavourable moments. The message was clear, the subject did not own the story. That ethic held for decades. Even at the height of celebrity culture, documentaries carried moral weight. The Fog of War (2003) turned political power into a study of consequence. Fahrenheit 9/11(2004) weaponised facts against authority. The documentarian's task was to| observe, interrogate, and, at times, to discomfort. As Ken Burns once warned when criticising Michael Jordan's involvement in The Last Dance (2020): "If you are there influencing the very fact of it getting made, it means certain aspects that you don't necessarily want in aren't going to be in." Today, that independence has been quietly rewritten.

THE NEW TRUTH INDUSTRY

The documentary has been rebranded as both therapy and marketing. Almost every major celebrity now has, or soon will have, a streaming documentary. Beckham, Miss Americana, Pamela, A Love Story, and now Victoria Beckham (Netflix, 2025) show how fame has colonised a form once reserved for investigation. As Esquire observed earlier this year, "documentary is now as enamoured with celebrity as the most scoophungry paparazzo." The new wave promises raw intimacy while offering controlled access. The camera lingers on domestic spaces, private confessions, and curated tears, all framed by immaculate lighting and legal sign-off. The result is an illusion of exposure: transparency without risk.

IMAGE CONTROL AS STORYTELLING