A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education, or maintaining a historical record ".

A documentary is defined as a film or television program that is educational and tells a true story. An example of a documentary is the An Inconvenient Truth, a movie about global warming. Consisting of, concerning, or based on documents. The definition of documentary is a film or television program that shows a story or situation truthfully.