It seems that the first decades of the new millennium have brought about a small renaissance of documentaries, especially those that combine live action and animated pictures and even those visualiezd totally by employment of various animation techniques. My concern in the following chapter is the conspicuous propensity in Swedish animation towards animated documentary. In my view Sweden is the country that, besides Canada and Great Britain, has developed the most prolific production of films that merge documentary purposes and animated imagery.
In this chapter I define animated documentary, as I understand it. I will also take a look into the history of Swedish animation and documentary, with an emphasis on the features that might be the base for the development of the animated documentary. The text will also focus on some factors in the production and social background that, at least partly, explain why the animated documentary is such a prominent feature on the Swedish animation scene and, lastly, it will point at some films and filmmakers that eminently represent the genre.