There is an established assumption about documentary film; audience generally regards all the things depicted in a documentary film as ‘real’ and ‘true’. However, the universal reality is limited by documentary filmmaker’s
perspective about the topic, object and people that are dealt with and thereby, the reality reflected in the film becomes the reality of the director. Consequently, the director’s version of reality is added to the reality that already exists and makes information that is accepted as very debatable. Typographical elements in documentary films are not noticed in the framework of reality whether they are a part of reality or the additions of the director to the film in the post shot period. In fact, many typographical elements such as the name of the film, references of people, place and time (lower thirds) intertitles, subtitles, and credits that are added to the film in the editing process bare the potential to modify the reality or manipulate audience perception and thus deserve discussion. This article takes examples of documentary films from Turkey as the basis and asserts that the use of typography in documentary films can affect reality. It provides a four-step model for analyzing these effects as well.