A false document is a literary technique employed to create verisimilitude in a work of fiction. By inventing and inserting documents that appear to be factual, an author tries to create a sense of authenticity beyond the normal and expected suspension of disbelief for a work of art. The goal of a false document is to fool an audience into thinking that what is being presented is actually a fact.
In practice, false document effects can be achieved in many ways, including use of faked police reports, newspaper articles, bibliographical references, documentary footage or using the legal names of performers or writers in a fictional context. The effect can be extended outside of the confines of a text by supplementary material such as badges, I.D. cards, diaries, letters or other artifacts.
By intentionally blurring boundaries between fiction and fact, false documents present complex and perhaps insoluble ethical questions. In some cases, the difference between a great artistic achievement and a stunning forgery is slim. Sometimes the false document technique can be the subject of a work instead of its technique, though these two approaches are not mutually exclusive as many texts which engage falseness do so both on the literal and the thematic level.
A false document is usually created simply as an artistic exercise, but occasionally is promoted in conjunction with a criminal enterprise like fraud, forgery, or a confidence game. A false document should not be confused with a mockumentary, an admittedly fictional film presented in the manner of a documentary.
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One of the earliest examples of the technique is the 16th century chivalric romance Amadis of Gaul (1508, Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo).
The semidocumentary film making technique popularized in the 1950s used documentary techniques.
The 1973 film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (along with the 2003 remake) claims to be based on true events, but this is not the case. It is in reality only loosely inspired by crimes committed by serial killer Ed Gein.
The 1974 film Macon County Line claims to be true but it is in fact fiction.
The 1978 British comedy film The Rutles was done in the style of rock documentary which treated the fake band The Rutles as if they were a real band. It included mock ups of album covers and other ephemera as well as fake videos. It also included figures such as Mick Jagger, and Paul Simon as themselves, although it also included other members of The Rolling Stones and The Beatles playing various characters as well as numerous recognizable comedy actors, so there was no real intent to fool the audience. The success of the project did however lead to the fictional group recording two hit records and perform live concerts. The film would start a genre of its own called mockumentary and become hugely influential on later similar films such as This is Spinal Tap and Hard Core Logo.
The 1982 Steve Martin comedy Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid was shot in black and white as a parody of a 1940s film noir and included footage of actors from the film noir era such as Humphrey Bogart, Burt Lancaster, and others spliced in with the modern actors. The effect was crude however compared to the bigger budgeted Woody Allen film Zelig which was already being filmed.
The 1983 Woody Allen film Zelig was an elaborate mix of real newsreel footage from the 1930s and fake footage mixed together with fake interviews with real actors playing themselves as well as actors playing roles to tell the story of the Allen character and presented as a documentary. Although the film looks realistic the intent was not to actually fool the audience who would have been in on the joke.
The 1984 mockumentary This is Spinal Tap, a comedy based around a fictional 1970s rock band, was filmed in the style of a documentary and includes such details as fake album covers and historical videos done in the styles of the late 1960s and 1970s. The success of the film would later lead to actual recordings of the fictional band and concert tours plus press interviews, all done in character.
The 1987 movie Robocop while in no way presented as fact, does include several fake television ads which have nothing to do with the rest of the movie but become a running gag.
The 1988 British made-for-TV movie More Bad News was another mocumentary about a rock band, in this case an incompetent heavy metal band. It once again included appearances by real musician such as Ozzy Osbourne, The Scorpions, Motorhead and Def Leppard playing themselves.
The 1992 mocumentary Bob Roberts was also a political mystery filmed as a fake documentary. This time there was no soundtrack album in spite of the importance of music in the film as the film's writer, director and star Tim Robbins was concerned that the politically right wing content would be taken seriously and used by right wing politicians.
The 1994 Tom Hanks film Forrest Gump while not presented as a documentary of a real character, does contain several sequences that feature the Hanks character inserted into archival newsreel footage of John Kennedy, Gerald Ford, The Beatles, Elvis Presley, The Apollo 11 astronauts and others to realistic effect.
Peter Jackson's 1995 film Forgotten Silver was billed and introduced as a serious documentary, purporting to tell the story of 'forgotten' New Zealand filmmaker Colin McKenzie. A large portion of the viewing audience were fooled until the directors revealed they were "only joking".
A disclaimer before the 1996 film Fargo makes the claim that it is based on a true story, but this was repudiated by its creators, the Coen brothers, saying that people would more readily believe something outlandish if told that it actually happened, per the "truth is stranger than fiction" idiom.
The 1996 Canadian film Hard Core Logo, about a punk band was done in the style of a documentary and as part of the film's promotional campaign ads were placed in music magazines from fake music collectors claiming to be looking for albums from the band. In lieu of a proper soundtrack album the film makers instead produced an album called A Tribute to Hard Core Logo which pretended to be a tribute album to the non-existent band. Ironically one of the bands on the album, The Headstones featured singer Hugh Dillon who also starred in the movie as a singer of the fictional band. Even more ironically most of the bands who actually did appear as themselves in the movie, such as Art Bergman, The Modernettes and D.O.A. were not on the fake tribute. A proper soundtrack album would be released much later. The fictional band's music was done by a real band named Swamp Baby with vocals by Dillon. The film also features rock journalists and dj's as themselves.
When the 1999 film The Blair Witch Project was released, the extensive marketing campaign claimed it to be a real documentary, compiled from footage discovered abandoned in a forest. After the film's success a soundtrack album was produced which was supposed to be made up of music one of the characters had on her walkman when she "disappeared", although the film itself has little music in it.
The 2000 comedy Best in Show made by some of the same actors from This is Spinal Tap was also done as a mockumentary, this time of various contestants at a fictional dog show.
The 2004 film C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America is a political satire which explores issues of slavery and racism by assuming that the American Civil War was won by the Confederacy. The film is presented as a BBC television documentary which includes fake television ads for racist products which at the end of the movie are revealed to have been real at some point in the 20th century.
Like Hardcore Logo the 2005 Canadian film The Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico, about a country rock singer, was also done as a fake documentary with appearances by Kris Kristofferson, Ronnie Hawkins, Merle Haggard and Levon Helm playing themselves. The film was also released with a soundtrack album which pretended to be a genuine album from the fictional singer. There was also a promotional campaign with magazine ads and posters which implied that the character was real.
The 2003 mocumentary A Mighty Wind was made by most of the same people behind This is Spinal Tap and Best in Show and was also done as a documentary of three 1960s folk bands doing a reunion concert and contained song performances, one of which was nominated for an Academy Award.
The 2006 film The Death of a President was filmed in the style of a television documentary filmed years after the event to tell the story of the fictional assassination of U.S. President George W. Bush and the aftermath to realistic effect.
The 2007 film Grindhouse made by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez is presented as a 1970s exploitation film double feature and included fake movie trailers made to look like those of the era. The illusion was further maintained by artificially aging the film's appearance. (Rodriguez later made movies based on the 'false' trailers.)
The 2007 bio drama What we do is secret, about the punk band The Germs is done in a partial documentary style with cast members addressing the camera as if being interviewed.
The 2008 film Cloverfield purports to be video footage shot by witnesses of a monster attacking New York City and recovered by the US Army as evidence. It begins with a title screen claiming the footage was found in "US Site 447, formerly known as Central Park." However, the enormous scale of the disaster shown in the movie makes it impossible that viewers would consider the movie to be true.
The 2010 film I'm Still Here was another mockumentary. This time with an actor, Joaquin Phoenix, pretending to be starting a career as a rapper while apparently suffering a nervous breakdown. During the making of the film and subsequent promotion campaign Phoenix stayed in character including a notorious interview with David Letterman and the film maker Casey Affleck maintained the ruse that the film was true, only later admitting that it was not.
Orson Welles' F for Fake is a prime example of a film which is both about falsification (art forgery and the journalism surrounding art forgery) as well as having falsified moments within the film. The movie follows the exploits of a famous art forger, his biographer Clifford Irving, and the subsequent fake autobiography of Howard Hughes that Irving tries to publish. The issues of veracity and forgery are explored in the film while at the same time, Welles tricks the audience by incorporating fake bits of narrative alongside the documentary footage.
Another artist who has run afoul of the technique is the artist JSG Boggs, whose life and work have been extensively explored by author and journalist Lawrence Weschler. Boggs draws currency with exceptional care and accuracy, but he only ever draws one side. He then attempts to buy things with the piece of paper upon which he has drawn the currency. His goal is to pass each bill for its face value in common transactions. He buys lunch, clothes, and lodging in this manner, and after the transactions are complete his bills fetch many times their face value on the art market. Boggs does not make any money from the much larger art market value of his work, only from reselling the goods bought, the change and receipts and other such materials. He has been arrested in many countries, and there is much controversy surrounding his work.
Mostly, however, the technique is employed in more mundane ways that hark back to its nineteenth century origins. Whether a particular piece of art is a false document, or is using false documentary techniques in a central way, is of course arguable. Usually, the character and extent of the use is examined.
Documentary filmmaking, and other attempts at actual documentation, can wittingly and unwittingly participate in the form as its goals of authenticity are so closely aligned with direct false documentation (that is, in both cases there is an element of authenticity and an element of narrative fudging). In Schwarzenegger's Pumping Iron, for example, Arnold talks about how his father died in the months preceding a major body building competition. He uses this anecdote to illustrate how important the final months before a competition are to a truly dedicated bodybuilder. He says that, though his father's funeral was set during the penultimate month, he did not attend because he could not be distracted from training. However, in the companion book it is revealed that at the time of printing, Arnold's father had not died. It does not say the story was a lie, it merely provides contrary evidence. Schwarzenegger was executive producer of both the film and the companion book. It has been theorized by Professor Sally Robinson that Schwarzenegger was intentionally undermining his own narrative, effectively creating a mildly self-deprecating re-examination of his own obsessions for perfection at any cost. In the end, whether Arnold intentionally fabricated the story for a desired effect is left to the audience (in interviews associated with the re-release of the film, he says he did).
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is an alleged record which was published and printed for the first time in 1903. The alleged original manuscript has long since disappeared, and conflicting, and inconsistent, testimony and witness reports about it have been presented at the Berne Trial in 1934 and 1935. Nevertheless, it has been established that it was a fabrication created by the Tsar's secret police, the Okhrana. Furthermore, it has been established that a substantial portion of it was taken, without citation, from a 1864 satire on Napoleon III by one Maurice Joly (his French language work, The Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu) - so that it also constitutes plagiarism. Nevertheless, it has been repeatedly reproduced, in typescript and printed form, by its often anonymous editors as an alleged authentic document taken or stolen from some vaguely identified Jewish and Masonic organization. As such, it was presented to Russian Empire censors (1903, 1905, 1906, 1911) who passed it along for publication. Similarly, it was presented to various government officials, military and diplomatic, in the United States and in Europe (1919–1920), in opposition to the Russian Revolution, and to influence the terms of the peace settlement which resulted in the Treaty of Versailles. Accordingly, this work, which now only exists in the world as a reproduction, has all the elements of a false document. Since it is difficult to imagine a typesetter working without a manuscript, unless the typesetter was writing the document as it was printed, we must assume that one existed. But since this original forged item has long since disappeared, the crimes of fraudulently and repeatedly submitting such a false document as authentic not only cannot be prosecuted, but cannot be studied by historians or subjected to the rigorous requirements of forensics.
Several fiction writers use the technique of inventing a piece of literature or non-fiction and referring to this work as if it actually existed, typically by quoting from the work.
Blurring the line of reality and fiction is an important component of horror, mystery, detective, science fiction and fantasy narratives due to their unusual demands on verisimilitude; a typically descriptive narrative form may not engender in the reader the necessary sense of wonder and danger. For this reason, false documentary techniques have been in use for at least as long as these literary genres have existed. Frankenstein draws heavily on a forged document feel, as do Dracula, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and many of the works of Jules Verne, Edgar Allen Poe and H.G. Wells. Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire is a particularly elaborate variation.
The following is a partial list of false supporting documents in fiction:
A special case is represented by two examples fashioned to represent traditional academic scientific publications:
In video games, the adventure genre has most frequently given rise to the use of false documents to create a sense of immersion. The feelies pioneered by text adventure company Infocom include many examples, such as blueprints, maps, documents, and publications designed within the context of each game's fictional setting. A more recent development, the alternate reality game, is intrinsically tied to the concept; an ARG may exist solely as a collection of false documents that build a fictional storyline and puzzles connected to it.
A prominent example of false document in the videogame genre is the Resident Evil series, which, from the first installment, uses newspaper clippings and television news reports that report the alleged cannibalistic murder of the victims found in the Arklay Mountain region. While the rest of the series does not do this as much as the first, there are still a few cases that it happens, such as the opening sequence of Resident Evil 4.
A viral marketing campaign ran prior to the release of Shadow of the Colossus, stating the Colossi were actual real statues found by explorers and tourists.
There is a long history of producers creating tie-in material to promote and merchandise movies and television shows. Tie-in materials as far-ranging as toys, games, lunch boxes, clothing and so on have all been created and in some cases generate as much or more revenue as the original programming. One big merchandising arena is publishing. In most cases such material is not considered canon within the show's mythology; however, in some instances the books, magazines, etc. are specifically designed by the creators to be canonical. With the rise of the Internet, in-canon online material has become more prominent.
The following is a list of "false document" in-canon supplemental material:
Additionally, a set of trading cards was produced which are also canon.
A forged document, the Zinoviev Letter brought about the downfall of the first Labour Government in Britain. Conspiracies within secret intelligence services have occurred more recently, and led Harold Wilson in the 1960s to put in place rules to prevent phone tapping of members of parliament for example.
A number of hoaxes have involved false documents:
False documents were recently the topic of a graduate level seminar in the humanities at the University of Michigan. The seminar was taught by Professor Eileen Pollack. While the form has existed for at least two hundred years, focused study is fairly recent.
Curtis Peebles (1994). Watch the Skies: A Chronicle of the Flying Saucer Myth, Smithsonian Institution, ISBN 1-56098-343-4