Given the emergence of cinematic pieces that mix documentary with fiction, as well as with certain journalistic genres, hybridity is nowadays an undeniable feature of documentary. Starting from a historical context, and a brief overview of the construction process, the definition of a documentary is explorer based on two main dimensions: truth and art. Next, we address the categorization of the documentary, mentioning, among others, the proposal that Bill Nichols suggested in 2001 and which would seem to be universally accepted today. Nevertheless, this categorization seems to us to be rather imprecise, since it makes it impossible to arrange and classify a considerable number of films. Thus, an attempt is made to re-approach gender categorization.