In feature films the director is God in documentary films God is the director.

Hitchcock contrasts the controlled artifice of narrative cinema with the contingency of documentary. In fiction filmmaking, the director can determine virtually everything—casting, blocking, lighting, camera placement, and even the timing of a glance—creating a world whose meaning is authored through design. Documentary, by contrast, begins from events and people that resist total control; reality supplies the decisive turns, and the filmmaker’s role shifts toward observation, selection, and shaping in the edit rather than outright invention. The aphorism also reflects Hitchcock’s broader belief in cinema as a medium of deliberate manipulation—of image, suspense, and audience attention—while acknowledging that non-fiction must negotiate with what the world gives.

1) “In feature films the director is God; in documentary films God is the director.”
2) “In fiction films, the director is God; in documentary films, God is the director.”
3) “In feature films the director is God. In documentary films God is the director.”