Avant-garde techniques could be mistaken for documentary realism by mainstream critics

Evidence

Mistaking Clarke’s faux cinema verité, replete with white outs, jumps cuts, and swish pans, for the real thing, Variety referred to the movie as a “documentary”—which, in a sense, it was. Clarke’s Connection not only preserved the play but, largely because of her fidelity to Gelber’s dialogue, managed to reproduce something of its controversial reception. — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 400

Categorization

• DEFINE: Shows that 1962-era audiences and critics had no category for faux cinema verité; experimental style read as authentic documentary.