社会参与性纪录片不仅是一个国家社会民主化的产物、也是伴随者和推动力。韩国社会参与性纪录片从上世纪80年代以来经历了启蒙、省察、审美三个发展时期，在2014年到2018年因为社会政治局势的动荡以及包括传播媒介、制作工具在内的数字技术的发展而具有了崭新的面貌。新历史阶段的社会参与性纪录片在纪录社会斗争、追踪调查、实践真相的叙事层面上，宏观视角与微观视角相结合，进行了文本、美学等观察和说明方式的实验。媒介层面上，社会参与性纪录片发挥纪录片的社会文化属性和电影的大众性，与当下的观众进行沟通，展开全面的纪录和记忆斗争。起到了保存事件，代替媒体，揭发现实，证实社会运动正当性，对历史进行逆向解释，对记忆创造性介入、达成新的历史经验和历史想象力，表达个人及群体历史使命，引导民众参与社会，推进社会民主化进程等作用。

Social participation documentary is not only the product of a country's social democratization, but also the companion and impetus. Since the 1980s, social participatory documentaries in South Korea have experienced three periods of development: enlightenment, introspection and aesthetics. From 2014 to 2018, they have taken on a brand-new look due to the turbulence of social and political situation and the development of digital technologies including media and production tools. In the new historical stage, social participation documentaries combine the macro perspective with the micro perspective on the narrative level of recording social struggle, tracking investigation and practicing the truth, and carry out the experiment of observation and explanation methods such as text and aesthetics. At the media level, socially participatory documentaries give play to the social and cultural attributes of documentaries and the popularity of films, communicate with the current audience, and carry out a comprehensive record and memory struggle. It has played a role in preserving events, replacing the media, exposing the reality, proving the legitimacy of social movements, conducting reverse interpretation of history, creatively intervening in memory, achieving new historical experience and historical imagination, expressing the historical mission of individuals and groups, guiding the public to participate in society, and promoting the process of social democratization.