The usually opposed concepts document and image are treated hereas parts of an art system which relies on the specific character of documentaryimage combining an account of events and the implicit metaphorics of thecaptured reality. Throughout the history of cinema documentary filmmakershave always tended to move beyond the strict adequacy of representation givingtheir personal interpretation of reality in terms of a poetic text. Documentaryfilm poetry is most notably related to Dziga Vertov who strived to overcome theflatness of sheer chronicle breaking through to a kind of screen versification.Vertov’s recipe was based on distancing, his messages could not be understoodjust by automatic perception of events, but only in view of polysemic symbolicaland metaphorical content of every single shot camera angle accentuations.Editing and rhythmic connotations, exquisite camera angle accentuations, blank-verse rhythmic captions turned observation of the ordinary course of life intoabstractions, as exemplified by “A Sixth Part of the World”.The experience of poetic documentaries based on organic combinationof literary verses and screen imagery is evidenced by Alain Resnais and PaulÉluard’s “Guernica” and Joris Ivens and Jacques Prévert’s “The Seine Meets Paris”,two films featuring two personal models of documentary poetry perceived asexpressive transformation of reality viewed through the lens of Pablo Picassoand Alain Resnais and as lyrical outbursts in the movie by Ivens. Contemporaryforms of documentary poetry are exemplified by Godfrey Reggio, Philip Glass,Ron Fricke and their modern followers.