<P> Documentary filmmaking can be used as a form of journalism, advocacy, or personal expression . </P> <P> Early film (pre-1900) was dominated by the novelty of showing an event . They were single - shot moments captured on film: a train entering a station, a boat docking, or factory workers leaving work . These short films were called "actuality" films; the term "documentary" was not coined until 1926 . Many of the first films, such as those made by Auguste and Louis Lumière, were a minute or less in length, due to technological limitations . </P> <P> Films showing many people (for example, leaving a factory) were often made for commercial reasons: the people being filmed were eager to see, for payment, the film showing them . One notable film clocked in at over an hour and a half, The Corbett - Fitzsimmons Fight . Using pioneering film - looping technology, Enoch J. Rector presented the entirety of a famous 1897 prize - fight on cinema screens across the United States . </P> <P> In May 1896, Bolesław Matuszewski recorded on film few surigical operations in Warsaw and Saint Petersburg hospitals . In 1898, French surgeon Eugène - Louis Doyen invited Bolesław Matuszewski and Clément Maurice and proposed them to recorded his surigical operations . They started in Paris a series of surgical films sometime before July 1898 . Until 1906, the year of his last film, Doyen recorded more than 60 operations . Doyen said that his first films taught him how to correct professional errors he had been unaware of . For scientific purposes, after 1906, Doyen combined 15 of his films into three compilations, two of which survive, the six - film series Extirpation des tumeurs encapsulées (1906), and the four - film Les Opérations sur la cavité crânienne (1911). These and five other of Doyen's films survive . </P>

Who is credited with first imagining the concept of sound recording