The Golden Age of Documentary

Just for the record, this one. I'm not the only one saying it – which is evidence of its emergence from the zeitgeist – but I want to set it down. I think that when we look back at this era of American documentary film, it will look like the 1970s did for fiction cinema. Right now, documentary filmmakers have at their fingertips affordable, high quality cameras that can roll unlimited "tape" and access to footage on subjects who are being filmed and photographed nearly constantly – by themselves, by friends, by co-workers, etc. – but who are not yet aware of what this ubiquitous footage might mean for them. In another 5-15 years, I predict that the average adult will have grown up so aware of their media personality, even if only the "micro-media" of their social network, that the publicly available footage won't contain the revelations nor have the verite feel it does today.