In film, radio and television programming and staged theatre, docudrama is a documentary-style genre that features dramatized re-enactments of actual historical events. As a neologism, the term is often confused with docufiction.

Contrary to docufiction, which basically is documentary, filmed in real time, “reality” in docudrama is filmed at a time ulterior to the events it portrays. It is based on narrative and fiction. Docudrama producers sometimes use as location for a realistic setting (fiction) a natural stage — see stage (theater) —, the place itself where the dramatised events are supposed to have occurred: it may mean a false documentary or journalistic narrative, like the 1938 radio drama The War of the Worlds by Orson Welles.

Docudramas tend to demonstrate some or most of the following characteristics:

A good docudrama does not abuse dramatic license, and avoids overt commentary and explicit assertion of the creator's own point of view or beliefs.

Docudramas are distinct from historical fiction, in which the historical setting is a mere backdrop for a plot involving fictional characters.

Chandra Ann Levy (April 14, 1977 – c. May 1, 2001) was an American intern at the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Washington, D.C., who disappeared in May 2001. She was presumed murdered after her skeletal remains were found in Rock Creek Park in May 2002. The case attracted attention from the American news media for years.

The investigation led to media allegations of an affair with married, and then-U.S. Representative, Gary Condit, a five-term Democrat representing California's 18th congressional district and a senior member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Condit was never named a suspect by police and was eventually cleared of involvement. However, the cloud of suspicion raised by the intense media focus on the missing intern and the later revelation of the affair led to his loss in his 2002 re-election campaign.

The circumstances surrounding Levy's death were unclear for eight years. On March 3, 2009, D.C. authorities obtained a warrant to arrest Ingmar Guandique, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador who had already been convicted of assaulting two other women in Rock Creek Park around the time of Levy's disappearance. Prosecutors stated that Guandique had attacked and tied up Levy in a remote area of the park and left her to die of dehydration or exposure. In November 2010, Guandique was convicted of murdering Levy; he was sentenced in February 2011 to 60 years in prison.

Grizzly Man is a 2005 documentary film by German director Werner Herzog. It chronicles the life and death of bear enthusiast Timothy Treadwell. The film consists of Treadwell's own footage of his interactions with grizzly bears before he and his girlfriend Amie Huguenard were killed and eaten by a bear in 2003, and of interviews with people who knew or were involved with Treadwell. The footage he shot was later found, and the final film was co-produced by Discovery Docs, the Discovery Channel's theatrical documentary unit, and Lions Gate Entertainment. The film's soundtrack is by British singer songwriter and guitarist Richard Thompson.

Timothy Treadwell spent 13 summers in Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Over time, he believed the bears trusted him and would allow him to approach them; sometimes he would even touch them. Treadwell was repeatedly warned by park officials that his interaction with the bears was unsafe to both him and to the bears. "At best, he's misguided," Deb Liggett, superintendent at Katmai and Lake Clark national parks, told the Anchorage Daily News in 2001. "At worst, he's dangerous. If Timothy models unsafe behavior, that ultimately puts bears and other visitors at risk." Treadwell filmed his exploits, and used the films to raise public awareness of the problems faced by bears in North America. In 2003, at the end of his 13th visit, he and his girlfriend Amie Huguenard were attacked, killed, and partially eaten by a bear; the events which led to the attack are unknown.

Una Vida is an archaeological site located in Chaco Canyon, San Juan County, New Mexico, United States. Its construction began around 900 AD and it is one of the three earliest Chacoan Anasazi great houses; it. Comprising at least two stories and 124 rooms, it shares an arc or D-shaped design with its contemporaries, Peñasco Blanco and Pueblo Bonito, but has a unique "dog leg" addition made necessary by topography. It is located in one of the canyon's major side drainages, near Gallo Wash, and was massively expanded after 930 AD.

The site is surrounded by Anasazi rock art and petroglyphs that depict human figures, solar signs, and geometric forms. It was first recorded in the mid-19th century by US military that were surveying the area of modern New Mexico.

Una Vida means "One Life" in the Spanish language.

Chaco Road is a network of roads (for travel and trade) which radiated from great house sites, such as Pueblo Bonito, Chetro Ketl and Una Vida. This road lead to smaller sites on the periphery of Chaco Canyon.