What was the first documentary film?
Documentary film
Une nouvelle source de l'histoire (eng. A New Source of History) and La photographie animée (eng. Animated photography)
Polish writer and filmmaker Bolesław Matuszewski was among those who identified the mode of documentary film. He wrote two of the earliest texts on cinema Une nouvelle source de l'histoire (eng. A New Source of History) and La photographie animée (eng. Animated photography). Both were published in 1898 in French and among the early written works to consider the historical and documentary value of the film.[3] Matuszewski is also among the first filmmakers  to propose the creation of a Film Archive to collect and keep safe visual materials.[4]