Documentary as experience

"The term documentary designates more than a cinematic object. [...] designates a particular subjective relation to an objective cinematic or televisual text. In other words, documentary is less a thing than an experience."
Vivvian Sobchack, "Towards a Phenomenology of Nonfictional Film Experience", in Collecting Visible Evidence, Michael Renov and Jane Gaines, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1999, p. 241.