Documentaries, as we know them today, have been a century in the making. They originated in the early 20th century when filmmakers began using a movie camera to capture reality and tell real-life stories. The first documentaries were silent newsreels, showcasing events of significance and public interest.

Documentaries have been made in one form or another in nearly every country and have contributed significantly to the development of realism in films. John Grierson, a Scottish educator who had studied mass communication in the United States, adapted the term in the mid-1920s from the French word documentaire.