This paper examines documentary image through narration and representation from Peirce’s sign theory. The argument is that thedocumentary value of films comprises an art form where three semiotic levels of documentary image, namely expression, representation, and interpretation, are in coordination in order to produce a narrative world. Thus, a quest for meaning in life by virtue of documentary sign, rhematic/dicentic indexical sinsign, serves to discover truth with a scientific and artful way of narration and representation as a cognitive method. In particular, the paper argues that factual and fictional primary materials are used for representing reality which is commensurate with memory and narrative imagination.
