Direct cinema is largely concerned with the recording of events in which the subject and audience become unaware of the camera's presence: operating within what Bill Nichols,[6] an American historian and theoretician of documentary film, calls the "observational mode", a fly on the wall.
Pierre Perrault sets situations up and then films them, for example in Pour la suite du monde (1963) where he asked old people to fish for whale.
[10][11] Edgar Morin coined the term around the time of such essential films as 1960's Primary[12] and his own 1961 collaboration with Jean Rouch, Chronicle of a Summer.
[77] Cinéma vérité was also adapted for use in scripted TV programs, such as Homicide: Life on the Street, NYPD Blue, The Shield,[14] both the UK and American versions of The Office,[31] Parks & Recreation[78] and Modern Family.
[14] It has also been a subject ripe for parodies and spoofs such as the mockumentary film This Is Spinal Tap[79] and Emmy Award-nominated TV series Documentary Now (the latter paying homage to the style of such CV classics as Grey Gardens, Salesman and The War Room).