documentarydriven

Documentarydriven is an adjective used to describe an approach that is guided by documentary evidence—records, reports, correspondence, archival materials, and other primary documents—rather than by theory, intuition, or solely quantitative data.

Common in documentary filmmaking, investigative journalism, archival research, and project documentation, the term signals a workflow in which documents are collected, verified, and used to shape questions, narratives, and conclusions.

In filmmaking, a documentary-driven method prioritizes provenance and corroboration of sources, often foregrounding archival footage, official records, and corroborating testimony to construct a narrative that can withstand scrutiny.

In research and analysis, it means formulating hypotheses or interpretations after assembling relevant documents and tracing evidentiary trajectories through sources, timeline reconstructions, and cross‑checking between documents.

Documentation-driven practice can improve transparency and accountability but may be resource-intensive and constrained by the availability, accessibility, and biases of historical records.

Although closely related to data-driven approaches, documentary-driven work emphasizes qualitative evidence and source critique over numeric metrics.

See also: documentary evidence, archival research, evidence-based practice, investigative journalism, document management.