DOCUMENTARY STORY TELLING
Documentary story telling is as old as human life, older then cave paintings, older then Neolithic nomads passing on hunting skills and survival stories. It is perhaps one of our most important ways of handing down information and exploring reality.
Think about it for a moment and it becomes obvious that even early folklore and fiction were metaphors for human experience and intellect that reflected or tried to understand non-fiction realities. When there was no written language, documentary stories were told orally. Someone actually experienced being chased by a tiger and was able to survive and pass on the account from his or her own point-of-view (POV). Perhaps they traced the route or location of the attack in the earth as they told the story so everyone knew where the tiger might be lurking and even drew a picture of the tiger leaping from a rock somewhere. This story would be passed down to the next generation or to the neighbors or other families in the vicinity until it became legend, embellished by each generation no doubt.
Today we might interview the person who encountered the tiger, then go to the location and show the route and perhaps even the tiger if he was still around. We have all sorts of methods of recording reality i.e. events that are actually happening with people being spontaneously interviewed, unrehearsed, not manipulated, the event itself not scripted, and no actors employed.