Why is it so easy to believe in documentary cinema and how has it learned to appear "honest"? This will be discussed by film researcher Nadezhda Grebneva. Documentary cinema seems to be the most credible genre: the camera "saw", so it was. However, even at the moment of the birth of documentary filmmaking, this belief constantly failed - and that is why the first documentary films are so interesting today. The lecture will focus on cinema of the 1920s, when the boundaries between reality and staging were just beginning to emerge. Listeners will learn how Robert Flaherty combined ethnography and dramaturgy, why "popular anthropology" demanded beautiful and understandable stories, and how viewers perceived them on screen. The discussion will also cover artistic techniques that are still read as signs of realism: a "random" gesture, a mundane detail, a pause in the frame, a voice-over that seems unaware of the script. The expert will touch on the Soviet experience of documentary cinema, which became a tool for creating a new reality. Editing and material selection can guide the viewer's gaze in the desired direction, set the pace, and evoke the "right" emotions. The opposite of Soviet documentary filmmaking was the European avant-garde, which emphasized the subjectivity of the view of reality. No matter which documentary film you watch, it is important to ask yourself questions: what exactly is shown, what is left off-screen, who is speaking, on whose behalf, and who benefits from the chosen version of events.