Early documentary-style films are called what?

• A. Actualities
• B. Features
• C. Documentaries
• D. Shorts

Answer: (A)

Actualities denote the earliest non-fiction motion picture form, short clips that record real life as it happens rather than tell a fictional story. Pioneering filmmakers labeled these simply as actualités in French, highlighting scenes from everyday life, streets, factories, trains—anything that could be shown as a slice of reality. This usage predates the modern term documentary, and while we now use "documentaries" as a broad category, early non-fiction cinema centered on these actualities. Other terms miss the mark because features imply long fictional narratives, documentaries is a broader, later label, and shorts only describe length, not the non-fiction, reality-capturing nature of the work.