Docu-dramas

Here's a good piece from the British Guardian. My question is if what genre is docu-drama a subgenre of? Drama or documentary? And how does that fit with Borat? Or Spinal Tap? I think it has to be treated as a genre in its own right, not a subgenre.

Guardian Unlimited: Arts blog - film
No Oscars for the docu-drama
Xan Brooks

February 21, 2007 01:02 PM

For the whole article (worth reading) click here.
"In the rumble-tumble rush for Oscar, some hotly-tipped films will inevitably fail to make the cut. At various stages over the past six months, the likes of Borat, Bobby and United 93 have all been talked of as possible best picture nominees. All conspicuously fell by the wayside. There are probably numerous reasons for this, ranging from the rash of lawsuits that trailed Borat to the general suckiness of Bobby (though that never stopped Titanic). A friend of mine recently suggested another factor. "The Academy doesn't know how to deal with docu-dramas," he said.

Was there ever a more slippery sub-genre than the docu-drama? It is, in fact, so slippery that it travels under a variety of alter egos (the drama-doc, the re-enactment and - most troublingly - the "docu-fiction"). Until now it would never have occurred to me to bracket Borat alongside United 93, or for that matter Bobby alongside Touching the Void. Yet here they are - all members of the same shadowy masonic lodge.

The more I think about it, the more I understand the Academy's problem: I don't know how to deal with docu-dramas either. Like a fussy child with a plate of food, I prefer my facts not to mix with my fiction. ..."