The 6 Most Innovative Interactive Web Documentaries | via The Creators Project

Digital platforms are expanding the field of the traditional documentary, not only in terms of the distribution of linear stories, but especially in the production of content created specifically for the web. As seen in interactive web-based films like Highrise: Out My Window and Collapsus, different degrees of interactivity are now possible and are changing the way documentary storytelling relates to reality. As interactive media professor at the London College of Media Sandra Gaudenzi suggests, the differentiating levels of interactivity are a good way to classify these new forms of documentaries.

According to Gaudenzi, there are three different levels of interactivity that determine the type of documentary. The interactivity is either semi-closed (the user can browse but not change the content), semi-open (the user can participate but not change the structure of the interactive documentary), or completely open (the user and the interactive documentary constantly change and adapt to each other).

An example of a semi-closed project is Welcome to Pine Point (2010) by Canadian media group The Goggles. The story of Pine Point mostly unfolds through the written word, as it was originally written as a book, but the documentary is a creative collage of material from and about Pine Point—a Canadian mining town that disappeared in the 1980s. This documentary revolves around memories and the objects that keep the town’s spirit alive.