Documentary films Books

Book SynopsisHow do issues of form and content shape the documentary film? In what ways do documentaries abide by or subvert ethical expectations? Are mockumentaries a form of subversion? The author investigates the ways documentaries strive for accuracy and truthfulness and simultaneously fabricate a form that shapes reality.Trade Review"There is a fluidity in Nichols’ writing that gently forces us to see the 'blurred boundaries' . . . between all forms of visual expression. In reading these essays, one is often struck by how much is illuminated, not only within the boundaries of documentary film but into the historical, political, social and cultural world that provides the fertile ground where ideas take root." * Documentary *"Nichols’s marvelous volume of essays . . . spans forty years of his contribution to contemporary film theory. It offers lucid, articulate, and illuminating studies of both general issues in documentary theory and of individual films. Readers familiar with his books will find fascinating essays here, both supplementing his published volumes and adding new perspectives on his work." * European Legacy *Table of ContentsPREFACE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS INTRODUCTION PART I. DOCUMENTARY MEETS THE NEIGHBORS: THE AVANT-GARDE AND FICTION FILM PART II. THE AUDIO IN AUDIOVISUAL PART III. BEYOND "JUST THE FACTS": EVIDENCE, INTERPRETATION, AND SOCIAL CONTEXT PART IV. ETHICS AND IRONY IN DOCUMENTARY PART V. POLITICS AND THE DOCUMENTARY FILM NOTES INDEX

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Book SynopsisLos Angeles Documentary and the Production of Public History, 1958-1977 explores how documentarians working between the election of John F. Kennedy and the Bicentennial created conflicting visions of the recent and more distant American past. Drawing on a wide range of primary documents, Joshua Glick analyzes the films of Hollywood documentarians such as David Wolper and Mel Stuart, along with lesser-known independents and activists such as Kent Mackenzie, Lynne Littman, and Jesus Salvador Trevino. While the former group reinvigorated a Cold War cultural liberalism, the latter group advocated for social justice in a city plagued by severe class stratification and racial segregation. Glick examines how mainstream and alternative filmmakers turned to the archives, civic institutions, and production facilities of Los Angeles in order to both change popular understandings of the city and shape the social consciousness of the nation.Trade Review"Documentary makers who value the opportunity to understand how films of that era got made, and how the production and distribution practices established then continue to influence the market today, will profit greatly from reading this book." * Documentary *"The book is an encouragement to engage, now, with documentaries being made at the grassroots level by activist filmmakers and collectives, rather than waiting for the glossy, neutered account of the struggle." * Los Angeles Review of Books *"[This book] sheds a renovated and original light on the history of the twentieth century media culture(s) of L.A., and in the same way it reveals the potentialities of meticulous discursive excavations into the non-fiction realm, reversing film canons and stressing social and cultural functions that make this book be a relevant one in the field of film history, certainly, but in the field of contemporary history at large too: it is a passionate interrogation of moving image as a source of historiography and a productive factor of history. . . . Los Angeles Documentary deserves great attention not only as a deeply researched cinema-history book, but as a nuanced and sharp cultural and political study as well." * Synoptique *"An essential contribution to an emerging field of documentary research that seeks to synthesize connections among otherwise coterminous yet parallel strands of documentary histories. . . . Above all, the book makes a point about the value of avoiding the binary cliché of an independent documentarian as an atomized private individual in opposition to government, while shedding light on Cold War documentary culture in general." * Film Quarterly *"Joshua Glick’s book is an exemplary investigation into and deconstruction of the varying visions set forth through documentary practice." * Film Matters *"Los Angeles Documentary and the Production of Public History, 1958–1977 proves there is still much to be investigated in the timeline of America’s film production past. The acute specificity of Glick’s historical narrative makes his book a unique and necessary resource for understanding the evolution of Los Angeles documentary production, the works that were produced, and their impact on the formation of American identity." * Journal of Film and Video *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction. Beyond Fiction: Institutions of the Real Los Angeles Part One. New Frontier Visions in the Light and Shadow of Hollywood, 1958–1964 1. Studio Documentary in the Kennedy Era: Wolper Productions Begins 2. Downtown Development and the Endeavors of Filmmaker Kent Mackenzie Part Two. After theWatts Uprising: Community Media from the Top Down and the Bottom Up, 1965–1973 3. The Rise of Minority Storytelling: Network News, Public Television, and Independent Collectives 4. Hard Lessons in Hollywood Civics: Managing the Crisis of the Liberal Consensus 5. Wattstax and the Transmedia Soul Economy Part Three. Bicentennial Screens, 1974–1977 6. Roots/Routes of American Identity 7. Numbering Our Days in Los Angeles, USA Conclusion: The 1984 Olympics and the Neoliberalization of Culture Notes Selected Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisAn overview of the American documentary filmTrade ReviewIn American Documentary Film, Jeffrey Geiger examines the role of documentary film in mobilizing, promoting, and even suppressing central myths of U.S. national identity. His brilliant close readings illuminate the relationship between the rhetorical, technical and stylistic elements of specific films and a broader set of contexts and concerns. Rigorous yet accessible, this elegantly-written book will be of great value to the general reader and the specialist alike, and it will transform the way we consider the history, theory, and practice of documentary filmmaking. -- Valerie Smith, Princeton University In American Documentary Film, Jeffrey Geiger examines the role of documentary film in mobilizing, promoting, and even suppressing central myths of U.S. national identity. His brilliant close readings illuminate the relationship between the rhetorical, technical and stylistic elements of specific films and a broader set of contexts and concerns. Rigorous yet accessible, this elegantly-written book will be of great value to the general reader and the specialist alike, and it will transform the way we consider the history, theory, and practice of documentary filmmaking.Table of Contents1. Novelties, Spectacles, and the Documentary Impulse - Case Studies: Blacksmithing Scene (1893), Buffalo Dance (1894), and Mess Call (1896); 2. Virtual Travels and the Tourist Gaze - Case Study: Nanook of the North (1922); 3. Serious Play: Documentary and the Early Avant-garde - Case Study: Manhatta (1921); 4. Activism and Advocacy: The Depression Era - Case Study: The Plow that Broke the Plains (1936); 5. Idea-Weapons: Documentary Propaganda - Case Study: The Memphis Belle (1944); 6. 'Uncontrolled' Situations: Direct Cinema - Case Study: Grey Gardens (1975); 7. Relative Truths: Documentary and Postmodernity - Case Study: Tongues Untied (1989); 8. Media Wars: Documentary Dispersion - Case Study: Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)

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Book SynopsisAnalyses how independent documentaries are forging a new public sphere in today's China. This book offers a detailed account of one of the world's active and challenging contemporary documentary sectors. It draws extensively on first hand interviews with filmmakers.

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Book SynopsisThe extraordinary true story of the first Girl Scout troop designated for homeless girls - from the homeless families it brought together in Queens, New York, to the amazing citywide and countrywide responses it sparked.Giselle Burgess, a young mother of five, and her children, along with others in the shelter, become the catalyst for Troop 6000. Having worked for the Girl Scouts earlier on, Giselle knew that these girls, including her own daughters, needed something they could be a part of, where they didn''t need to feel the shame or stigma of being homeless, but could instead develop skills and build a community that they could be proud of.New York Times journalist Nikita Stewart embedded with Troop 6000 for more than a year, at the peak of New York City''s homelessness crisis in 2017, spending time with the girls and their families and witnessing both their triumphs and challenges. Stewart takes the reader with her as she paints intimate portraits o

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Book SynopsisThis book investigates representations of Palestinian refugees in Gaza in colonial, humanitarian and Palestinian documentary films, spanning until the 1993 Oslo Agreement. Chapters examine various film sources throughout this period including British Pathé, newsreels, Quaker and UNRWA documentaries, and Palestinian opposition cinema. British Pathé is considered as a window into the wider colonial depiction of indigenous Palestinians in the British Mandate period; newsreels are examined as representations of the plight of Palestinian refugees in Gaza after Israel's proclamation and Gaza-focused humanitarian documentaries shot by the Quakers and UNRWA are compared. The final chapters trace the evolution of oppositional documentary filmmaking, from the cinema of revolution (1968-1982) to the peace deal of 1993. Through a close audio-visual and textual analysis, rooted in a historical-contextual approach, Shahd Abusalama explores the techniques used to project emancipator

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Book SynopsisRemember a time when all of Hollywood-with the expressed encouragement and investment of the government-joined forces to defend the American way of life? It was World War II and the gravest threat faced the nation, and the world at large. Hollywood answered the call to action.This is the riveting tale of how the film industry enlisted in the Allied effort during the second World War-a story that started with staunch isolationism as studios sought to maintain the European market and eventually erupted into impassioned support in countless ways. Industry output included war films depicting battles and reminding moviegoers what they were fighting for, home-front stories designed to boost the morale of troops overseas, and even musicals and comedies that did their bit by promoting the Good Neighbor Policy with American allies to the south. Stars like Carole Lombard-who lost her life returning from a war bond-selling tour-Bob Hope, and Marlene Dietrich enthusiastically joined USO

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Book SynopsisPioneering participatory, social change-oriented media, the program had a national and international impact on documentary film-making, yet this is the first comprehensive history and analysis of its work. The volume''s contributors study dozens of films produced by the program, their themes, aesthetics, and politics, and evaluate their legacy and the program''s place in Canadian, Québécois, and world cinema. An informative and nuanced look at a cinematic movement, Challenge for Change reemphasizes not just the importance of the NFB and its programs but also the role documentaries can play in improving the world.Table of ContentsIllustrations; Acknowledgments Foreword Putting Ideas into the World: A Conversation with Naomi Klein about Starting Conversations with Film / Ezra Winton & Naomi Klein 1 Introduction: Forty Years Later... a Space for Challenge for Change/Societe nouvelle / Michael Brendan Baker, Thomas Waugh, & Ezra Winton PART 1 HISTORICAL SPACES: IN THE HEAT OF THE ACTION 2 Grierson and Challenge for Change (1984) / Colin Low; 3 In the Hands of Citizens: A Video Report (1969) / Dorothy Todd Henaut & Bonnie Sherr Klein; 4 Saint-Jerome: The Experience of a Filmmaker as Social Animator (1968) / Fernand Dansereau; 5 A Voice for Canadian Indians: An Indian Film Crew (1968) / Noel Starblanket; 6 Fiction Film as Social Animator (1971-72) interview with Leonard Forest by Dorothy Todd Henaut; 7 Working with Film: Experiences with a Group of Films about Working Mothers (1975) / Kathleen Shannon, Elizabeth Prinn, Doris Mae Oulton, & Irene Angelico; 8 Memo to Michelle about Decentralizing the Means of Production (1972) / John Grierson; 9 Can We Evaluate Challenge for Change? (1972) / Dan Driscoll PART 2 COMMUNITY SPACES: FILMING AT THE MARGINS 10 Media for the People: The Canadian Experiments with Film and Video in Community Development (1992) / Peter K. Wiesner; 11 Cities for Change: The Housing Challenge / Gerda Johanna Cammaer; 12 The En tant que femmes Series, the Film Souris, tu m'inquietes, and the Imaging of Women's Consciousness in 1970s Quebec / Marie-Eve Fortin; 13 Le mouton noir: Videographe and the Legacy of Societe nouvelle / Scott Mackenzie; 14 The Things I Cannot Change: A Revisionary Reading / Brenda Longfellow PART 3 SCREEN SPACES: SPOTLIGHT ON THE FILMS AND FILMMAKERS 15 You Are on Indian Land: Interview with George Stoney (1980) / Alan Rosenthal; 16 Cree Hunters of Mistassini: Challenge for Change and Aboriginal Rights / Michelle Stewart; 17 "Nation Time" at Kwacha House: The Transitional Modalities of Encounter at Kwacha House - Halifax / Kass Banning; 18 The Films of Maurice Bulbulian: Science and Conscience / Thomas Waugh; 19 The Curious Case of Wilf: Popular Music in Canadian Documentary / Michael Brendan Baker; 20 Portapak as Performance: VTR St-Jacques and VTR Rosedale / Brian Rusted; 21 Bonnie Klein, Saul Alinsky, and the American Experience / Stephen Michael Charbonneau; 22 Michel Regnier's "Films-Outil" / Liz Czach; 23 Leonard Forest and Acadia / Jeanne Deslandes; 24 Filmmaker as History: The Interventionist Films of Martin Duckworth / Michael Lithgow; 25 Les filles du Roy / Jerry White; 26 In Praise of Anomaly: Le bonhomme and Rose's House / Kalli Paakspuu; 27 Getting Close and Staying Far: Pierre Lasry and the Solo Moms / Jason Lindop; 28 Paper Wheat: Alternative Theatre Meets Alternative Filmmaking / Christopher Meir; 29 "Would I Ever Like to Work": The "Working Mothers" Films and the Construction of Community / Rina Fraticelli; 30 O, Canada! George Stoney's Challenge (1999) / Deirdre Boyle PART 4 DISCURSIVE SPACES: THEORIZING CHALLENGE FOR CHANGE/SOCIETE NOUVELLE 31 Societe nouvelle: The Challenge to Change in the Alternative Public Sphere (1996) / Scott Mackenzie; 32 Meeting at the Poverty Line: Government Policy, Social Work, and Media Activism in the Challenge for Change Program / Zoe Druick; 33 Amateur Video and the Challenge for Change (1995) / Janine Marchessault; 34 Video: The Politics of Culture and Community (1996) / Ron Burnett; 35 Winds and Things: Towards a Reassessment of the Challenge for Change/Societe nouvelle Legacy / Marit Kathryn Corneil; 36 "If a Revolution Is Screened and No One Is There to See It, Does It Make a Sound?" The Politics of Distribution and Counterpublics / Ezra Winton and Jason Garrison PART 5 CONCLUSION: CONTEMPORARY REINCARNATIONS 37 Filmmaker-in-Residence: The Digital Grandchild of Challenge for Change Interview with Katerina Cizek by Liz Miller; 38 Thirty Years and Twelve Thousand Miles Away ... / Vijaya Mulay Challenge for Change/Societe nouvelle: The Complete Filmography; Comprehensive Bibliography; Contributors; Index

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Book SynopsisIn a new edition of this popular guidebook, filmmakers Alan Rosenthal and Ned Eckhardt show readers how to utilize the latest innovations in equipment, technologies, and production techniques for success in the digital, webbased world of documentary film. All twentyfour chapters of the volume have been revised to reflect the latest advances in documentary filmmaking.

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Book SynopsisThirty-five years of nonfiction films offer a unique lens on twentieth-century French social issues.Trade Review"Brimming with as many fruitful insights as remarkable discoveries, Critical Mass amounts to a Declaration of Social Purpose for early French documentary film. Steven Ungar yokes the daring-do of the avant-garde to the political goals of the left over the course of some forty years of filmmaking. It is a triumph of critical analysis."—Bill Nichols, author of Introduction to Documentary, Third Edition"A powerhouse crowning the career of a distinguished scholar of twentieth-century studies, Critical Mass will be an enduring point of reference for the history of both documentary cinema in France and of the genre tout court. Wide-ranging, meticulously researched, and incisive, Steven Ungar’s readings recover the contexts that shape documentary style, form, and process. Had André Breton read Critical Mass, he would have concluded, rightly, that cinema will be documentary or it will not be."—Tom Conley, Harvard UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction: Establishing Shots1. A First Wave: Documentary Paris in the Shadow of the Talkies2. Moving In, Moving OutÉtudes sur Paris Transition I: 1929–19303. “All the World’s Misery”A Propos de Nice to AubervilliersTransition II: Popular Front—Vichy—Postwar4. Colonial Cinema and Its DiscontentsRené Vautier, Afrique 50Alain Resnais/Chris Marker, Les Statues meurent aussiJean Rouch, Moi, un NoirTransition III: The Group of Thirty5. Two Takes on Postwar Paris: Scenes in a Library and Paris Springtime ZeroAlain Resnais, Toute la mémoire du mondeChris Marker, Le Joli MaiAfterthoughts: A Radical LyricismAcknowledgmentsAppendix A. Declaration of the Group of ThirtyAppendix B. Quality Subsidy Study: Short-Subject AdvantagesNotesFilmographyIndex

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Book SynopsisIn 2016 Professor Stephen Hawking delivered the BBC Reith Lectures on a subject that has fascinated him for decades - black holes. In these flagship lectures the legendary physicist argues that if we could only understand black holes and how they challenge the very nature of space and time, we could unlock the secrets of the universe.Trade ReviewMaster of the Universe... One scientist's courageous voyage to the frontiers of the Cosmos * Newsweek *He can explain the complexities of cosmological physics with an engaging combination of clarity and wit... His is a brain of extraordinary power * Observer *One of the most brilliant scientific minds since Einstein * Daily Express *To follow such a fine mind as it exposes such great problems is an exciting experience * Sunday Times *The most brilliant British scientist of his generation * New Statesman *

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Book SynopsisThis book explores contemporary American true crime narratives across various media formats. It dissects the popularity of true crime and the effects, both positive and negative, this popularity has on perceptions of crime and the justice system in contemporary America. As a collection of new scholarship on the development, scope, and character of true crime in twenty-first century American media, analyses stretch across film, streaming/broadcast TV, podcasts, and novels to explore the variety of ways true crime pervades modern culture. The reader is guided through a series of interconnected topics, starting with an examination of the contemporary success of true crime, the platforms involved, the narrative structures and engagement with audiences, moving on to debates on representation and the ethics involved in portraying both victims and perpetrators of crime within the genre. This collection provides new critical work on American true crime media for Table of ContentsNotes on ContributorsAcknowledgementsIntroduction1. Beyond Entertainment: Podcasting and the Criminal Justice Reform "Niche"2. Chasing the Truth: Making a Murderer, Historical Narrativity and the Global Netflix Event3. True Crime Adaptations and the Many Faces of the Atlanta Monster4. True Crime, True Representation? Race and Injustice Narratives in Wrongful Conviction Podcasts5. Unresolved - Narrative Strategies in an Unsolved True Crime: Depictions of the JonBenét Ramsey Killing6. Breaking Silences, or Perpetuating Myths: Images of Mafia Violence in True Crime Documentary7. 'Exquisitely Criminal Production Music’: Television, Ethics and the Sound of True Crime8. Barthes's "Grand Project" and the Negative Capability of Contemporary True Crime: On Errol Morris’s A Wilderness of Error9. My Friend Dahmer: A Graphic‐Narrative Search for the Origins of Evil10. Forensic Fandom: True Crime, Citizen Investigation and Social Media11. "What Else Can I Add?": Inverting the Narrative through Female Perspectives in Falling for A Killer, My Favorite Murder, and Murder, Mystery & MakeUp.

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Book SynopsisThis collection of iconic interviews helps demystify the documentary filmmaking process by deconstructing the most relevant and important scenes in some of today''s most well-known documentary films. It offers concrete, real-world examples of the situations and decisions that filmmakers navigate. We go behind the scenes with the creators to learn the methodologies and approaches these directors, cinematographers, editors, and sound recordists have taken to bring these amazing documentaries to life.What makes a great scene? Why are they so important in the construction of a great film? The interviews included offer excellent insights from the directors of the award-winning The Truffle Hunters, My Octopus Teacher, Collective, Knock Down the House, Dick Johnson Is Dead, and Trapped; the cinematographer of RBG, Julia, and Fauci; the editor of Time; and sound recordist of Tiger King. Award-winning documentTable of ContentsForeword; 1 - Introduction - Scenes, Styles, and Genres; 2 – Observational - Truffle Hunters; 3 - Interview-Led - Trapped; 4 - Hybrid and Performative - Dick Johnson Is Dead; 5 - Poetic and Character-Led -Time; 6 - Archive - RBG; 7 - Natural History Genre - My Octopus Teacher; 8 - Competition Genre - Knock Down the House; 9 - Investigative Genre – Collective; 10 - Crime Drama Series - Tiger King; Addendum - Film List by Style and Genre; Acknowledgments; Index

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Book SynopsisThis edited textbook explores the 17 UN SDGs through 12 works from the humanities, including films, novels, and photographic collections. It provides students with the knowledge and understanding of how the humanities engage in broader social, political, economic, and environmental dialogue, offering a global perspective that crosses national and continental borders.The book takes students through the UN SDGs from a theoretical perspective through to practical applications, first through specific global humanities examples and then through students' own final projects and reflections. Centered around three major themes of planet, people, and prosperity, the textbook encourages students to explore and apply the Goals using a place-based, culturally rooted approach while simultaneously acknowledging and understanding their global importance. The text's examples range from documentary and feature film to photography and literature, including Wang Jiuliang's Plastic China,Trade Review"This engaging collection reveals the vital links between the humanities and the SDG framework. An integrative humanities perspective calls attention to the work of global artists, writers, and texts underrepresented in studies of environment, climate, and sustainability. Foregrounding the 2030 Agenda, the book centers on the themes of Planet, People, and Prosperity. Through an exploration of science fiction, photography, documentary film, and other genres, this highly accessible collection brings the global humanities into generative dialogue with education for sustainable development."John C. Ryan, Adjunct Associate Professor at Southern Cross University, Australia, and Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at the Nulungu Institute, Notre Dame University, AustraliaTable of ContentsIntroduction: A Global Humanities Approach to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Part 1: Planet: Relating Global Humanities Texts to UN SDGs 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, and 15 1. Aya Hanabusa’s Holy Island: Nuclear Power and Political Resistance in Iwaishima, Japan 2. Barbara Dombrowski’s Photographs and Art Installations of People and Landscapes: Tropic Ice: Dialog Between Places Affected by Climate Change 3. Fabrice Monteiro’s The Prophecy: Trash Art Photography Protests Trashing the Planet 4. Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn’s Cowspiracy: Animal Agriculture and the “Sustainability Secret” Part 2: People: Relating Global Humanities Texts to UN SDGs 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 5. Fernando Contreras Castro’s Única Looking at the Sea: Marginalization, Community, and Politics from a Garbage Dump 6. Agnès Varda’s The Gleaners and I: From Waste to Wonder—A Cinematic Odyssey on Food Loss and Gleaning 7. Agustina Bazterrica’s Tender is the Flesh: Devouring Each Other in Consumerist Society 8. Kief Davidson and Pedro Kos’s Bending the Arc: Public Health Pioneers Fight for Universal Health Equity Part 3: Prosperity: Relating Global Humanities Texts to UN SDGs 8, 9, 10, 11, and 16 9. Arvind Adiga’s The White Tiger: Stagnation or Social Mobility in Modern India 10. Ivan Sanjinés, Nicolás Ipamo and Alejandro Noza’s Cry of the Forest: Sustainable Development and the Indigenous Communities of Bolivia 11. Hao Jingfang’s “Folding Beijing”: Unequal Time and Space in a Dystopian City 12. Wang Jiuliang’s Plastic China: Unveiling the Façade of Prosperity Conclusion: Think Global, Act Local: Partnerships and Projects (SDG 17)

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Book SynopsisThe fifth title in the Docalogue series, this book examines Ahmir Questlove Thompson's 2021 documentary, Summer of Soul (Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised).The award-winning film draws on archival footage and interviews to examine the legacy of the Harlem Cultural Festival, a showcase of Black music staged weekly throughout the summer of 1969. The film interrogates this event as a piece of forgotten history and prompts critical reflection on why this history was lost while also raising important questions related to archival preservation and cultural memory. Combining five different perspectives, this book acts both as an intensive scholarly treatment and as a pedagogical guide for how to analyze, theorize, and contextualize a documentary. Together, the essays in this book touch upon key topics related to the study of popular music, musical performance, and audiences; the discovery and reuse of archives and archival documents; and Black studies and AmericaTable of ContentsIntroduction: Constituting a Congregation in/through Summer of Soul Jaimie Baron 1. Summer of Soul: The Angel of History Comes to Harlem Catherine Russell 2. The Black Archival Impulse Lauren McLeod Cramer 3. Beyond Black Woodstock: Summer of Soul as Historical Recovery Landon Palmer 4. A Secret History of the Secret History of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival: Summer of Soul, the Staple Singers, and the Rockumentary Genre Anthony Kinik 5. “Music in the Air:” Spirituality and Revival in Summer of Soul Michele Prettyman

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Book SynopsisThis book is a collection of personal essays that address critical elements involved in the production of nonfiction films. Written by an experienced documentary filmmaker and cinematographer, the book draws upon practical wisdom to explore the nuances and challenges faced by filmmakers and viewers alike.Included in the text are rarely discussed ethical issues, best practices in the field, filmmaker etiquette, and a detailed analysis of interview techniques. The book also provides a candid view of how decisions are made in production that are consequential to a finished filmâs meaning and fidelity. Drawing on a wide range of subject matter, it will enhance the reader's understanding of the tremendous power and potential of the documentary medium.The book offers an invaluable insight into documentary filmmaking for professionals who work in the medium and students who are learning the trade and honing their skills.

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Book SynopsisHybrid Documentary and Non-Binary Cinema offers an expansive exploration of the contemporary documentary cinema form, aesthetics, and ethics.Beginning with an exploration of the parameters and definitions of documentary cinema this book will focus on recent and presentâday examples of work that blur the lines between fiction and nonâfiction. This book will also take a series of case studies to question the vision and motives of filmmakers working between documentary and fictional films. It will consider the aesthetic and ethical challenges of these works and look toward the future of non-fiction filmmaking after the internet, and in the realm of the metaverse. This book will offer both an entry point to discover new tendencies and a deeper understanding for those readers who are more familiar with the field.Given its interdisciplinary subject nature, this book will appeal to audiences across a spectrum of interests such as film, fine art, anthropology, documentary, sociology, and drama.

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Book SynopsisUsing examples and hard-earned experiences from the Author's courses and lectures at the esteemed MFA in Documentary Film Program at Stanford University, A Guide to (Short) Documentary Filmmaking: Creating Artful Short Documentary Films explores what is unique about the short-form documentary and guides the reader through the process â from ideation to completion and distribution.This accessible and practical textbook guides readers through the steps of creating powerful and artful documentaries. Interviews with filmmakers and case studies of innovative and successful recent documentary shorts are included throughout to provide experienced insights and complement the chapters on Research, Pre-production, Production, Editing, and Distribution.The first and most definitive of its kind, this is the only resource to explore the short documentary as a distinct art form. It will therefore be essential for all students and professionals involved in producing thi

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Book SynopsisJürgen Böttcher and Documentary Film introduces the reader to this east-German filmmaker who, despite having made 40 films from the east side of the Berlin Wall, is practically unknown.Through the comparison of films made in the same year, one by an American and one by Böttcher, the author places him as ahead of his time in regards to technology, content, and style, and neck-and-neck with contemporary American filmmakers in cinéma vérité/direct cinema. The book moves beyond Böttcher's dramatic biography to explore his role in the history of film. Was it actually the Germans who created sync sound for documentary? When and how were women featured?Offering a concise journey through the history of documentary film within this cultural context, but also a deep-dive into specific case-studies that show the nuances and complexities of classifying film texts, this volume will interest students and scholars of film studies, German cinema, cinéma vérité, film producTable of ContentsChapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: The Biography of Jürgen Böttcher, Filmmaker, and STRAWALDE, Artist Chapter 3: Dramaturgy and Structure in Observational Documentary in 1962 — Jürgen Böttcher’s Ofenbauer (Furnace Builders) and Robert Drew and Richard Leacock’s The ChairChapter 4: The Representation of Women in Observational Cinema — Richard Leacock and Joyce Chopra’s Happy Mother’s Day (Director’s Cut) and Jürgen Böttcher’s Stars, 1963Chapter 5: Jürgen Böttcher and Frederick Wiseman — Institutions and Workplace in Observational Documentary Films in 1984 Chapter 6: Jürgen Böttcher and Barbara Kopple and Reform in Participatory/Reflexive Documentary in 1990 Chapter 7: Conclusion — Documentary Contrasts in Structure, Subject, Place, and Change in Group Identity, and an Expanded Definition of Documentary Modes

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Book SynopsisDecolonial Imaginaries in Palestinian Experimental Film and Video focuses on an underexamined group of female Palestinian filmmakers, highlighting their relevance for thinking through a diverse set of issues relating to decolonial aesthetics, post-nationalism and gender, non-Western ecologies, trauma and memory, diasporic experiences of space, biopolitics, feminist historiography and decolonial temporalities.Positing that these filmmaker-artists radically counter dominant media images of Palestinians, deessentializing Palestinian identity while opening up history and the present to new potentialities and ways of imagining Palestinian futures, Decolonial Imaginaries in Palestinian Experimental Film and Video argues that Palestinian experience is urgently relevant to all of us. As the works address issues of food availability and land use, environmental collapse and forced displacement, Hole explores how such films generate hope, imagine impossible possibilities and offer inspiration and wisdom when it comes to losing and rebuilding.Addressing a fundamentally transnational and understudied area, this book will resonate with readers working in the areas of film and media studies, Palestinian cultural studies, historiography, Middle East studies and experimental film.

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Book SynopsisThis book explores the continued development and practice of experimental documentary films with evolving trends in still photography, visual arts, journalism, interactive media and literature âespecially poetry and creative non-fiction. Through sets of observations, analyses, and exercises, readers will gain an understanding of both the traditional principles of documentary and simultaneously challenge its conventions in practice.While exploring the responsibilities of a documentary director to be fair and objective, the book weaves through arguments around truth and propaganda and offers practical lessons about how to create hybrid forms of documentary films. Written by a documentary filmmaker with decades of experience, the text provides a comprehensive overview of how documentary narratives are written and created in the research, pre-production, production and post-production phases. This is supplemented with an exploration of the relationships among documentary filmmaki

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Book SynopsisThe 1920s and 1930s saw the rise of the city symphony, an experimental film form that presented the city as protagonist instead of mere decor. Combining experimental, documentary, and narrative practices, these films were marked by a high level of abstraction reminiscent of high-modernist experiments in painting and photography. Moreover, interwar city symphonies presented a highly fragmented, oftentimes kaleidoscopic sense of modern life, and they organized their urban-industrial images through rhythmic and associative montage that evoke musical structures. In this comprehensive volume, contributors consider the full 80 film corpus, from Manhatta and Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Grosstadt to lesser-known cinematic explorations.Trade Review"The City Symphony Phenomenon: Cinema, Art, and Urban Modernity Between the Wars, a product of scholarly sleuthing and obsession, is a fascinating and valuable achievement."- Charles Musser, Yale University, USA"With the publication of The City Symphony Phenomenon: Cinema, Art, and Urban Modernity Between the Wars, editors Steven Jacobs, Eva Hielscher, and Anthony Kinik have created an invaluable contribution to the understanding of this compelling form of international film modernism."- S. Topiary Landberg, UCSC, USATable of ContentsPart I:Introduction: The City Symphony Phenomenon 1920-1940Steven Jacobs, Anthony Kinik, and Eva HielscherPart II:1. László MoholyNagy and the City (Symphony)Malte Hagener2. Productive City: Ruttmann’s Düsseldorf: Kleiner Film einer großen StadtMichael Cowan3. Minor Paris City SymphoniesChrista Blümlinger4. Kaufman and Kopalin’s MoscowMalcolm Turvey 5. A Parisian in Manhattan: Florey’s Skyscraper SymphonyMerrill Schleier6. D’Errico’s StramilanoJohn David Rhodes7. Belgian Variations on the City Symphony ThemeSteven Jacobs8. Koelinga’s De Steeg: Palimpsest and Parallax HistoriographyIvo Blom9. Schuitema’s De Maasbruggen: City and Film as a ProcessFloris Paalman10. Von Barsy and Von Maydell’s The City that Never Rests: A Port City SymphonyEva Hielscher11. Hauser’s Weltstadt in Flegeljahren: An Americanist City SymphonyEva Hielscher12. Oneway Street: Conrad’s Halsted StreetTom Gunning13. Leyda’s A Bronx Morning JanChristopher Horak14. Kemeny and Lustig’s Sao Paolo, a Symphonia da MetropoleCristina Menguello15. Sparling’s Canadian City SymphoniesAnthony Kinik16. Steiner and Van Dyke’s The CityAnthony KinikPart III:17. A Survey of City Symphonies 19201940Eva Hielscher, Steven Jacobs, and Anthony Kinik

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Book SynopsisAs we approach the end of the era of the witness', given the passing on of the generation of Holocaust survivors, Claude Lanzmann's archive of 220 hours of footage excluded from his ground-breaking documentary Shoah (1985) offers a remarkable opportunity to encounter previously unseen interviews with survivors and other witnesses, recorded in the late 1970s. Although the archive is all available freely to view online and includes extra footage of those who appear in Shoah, this book focuses on the interviews from which no extracts appear in the finished film or in any subsequent release. The material analysed features interviews with such significant figures as the former partisan Abba Kovner, wartime activist Hansi Brand, Kovno Ghetto leader Leib Garfunkel, rescuer Tadeusz Pankiewicz and members of Roosevelt's War Refugee Board, and focuses throughout on the efforts at rescue and resistance by those within and outside occupied Europe. Sue Vice contends that watching and Trade ReviewClaude Lanzmann’s Shoah is notorious not only for its length but for the huge quantity of its outtakes. Vice’s book not only demonstrates that the daunting outtake material demands to be viewed, but also provides a model of how to read it. -- Dominic Williams, Northumbria University, UKTable of ContentsIntroduction: Reacting to Genocide 1. Abba Kovner: ‘Like Sheep to the Slaughter’ 2. Hansi Brand: ‘Selling One’s Soul’ 3. Indirect Testimony: Rabbi Michael Weissmandl 4. Ghetto Rescue and Resistance: Tadeusz Pankiewicz, Hersh Smolar and Leib Garfunkel 5. Communal Testimony and the War Refugee Board: Peter Bergson, Roswell McClelland, John Pehle and Robert Reams 6. Leadership, Responsibility and Resistance: Yehuda Bauer, Richard Rubenstein, Ya’akov Arnon 7. Allied Responses: Henry Feingold in New York, Shmuel Zygielboim in London Conclusion Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisRichard Wallace is Assistant Professor in Film and Television Studies at the University of Warwick, UK. His research focuses on documentary, comedy and British film and television history. He is the author of Mockumentary Comedy: Performing Authenticity (2018).

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Book SynopsisRichard Wallace is Assistant Professor in Film and Television Studies at the University of Warwick, UK. His research focuses on documentary, comedy and British film and television history. He is the author of Mockumentary Comedy: Performing Authenticity (2018).

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Book SynopsisAnna Ulrikke Andersen, Post-Doctoral Researcher at the University of Oxford, UK, is a Norwegian architectural historian and filmmaker.Trade ReviewAnna has demonstrated that to follow a fellow Norwegian architect of another generation, is to find similarities, to seek coincidences, to shadow, to re-enact, to track, to go along (often in faith), to act under the influence of, to act under the shadow of, to carry the weight of this person, and in so doing, to put her own writing self at risk. To follow is also to admire, to support, to understand. The book ... has qualities of a detective novel where clues are allowed to travel their distance, to expend their conclusions, and to spin more questions about the missing protagonist. * Site-Reading Writing Quarterly *Andersen’s approach is unconventional, but also compelling and timely. On the one hand, it draws on recent attempts at developing critical spatial practice in postgraduate practice-based research programs, where the designer’s skillsets and creative output are utilized as research method. Simultaneously, her book is published amidst a wide-ranging questioning of the assumptions underpinning the field of architectural phenomenology. Yet Andersen manages to practice phenomenology in an open and self-reflective way, able to critically re-engage the difficulties and failings in Norberg-Schulz’s approach while displaying a poetic sensibility that allows for a more refined appreciation of his position. * Montreal Architectural Review *Anna Ulrikke Andersen’s wondrous book is many things at once: a window onto the work of the Norwegian architectural theorist, an artist’s probing journey of discovery and persistent self-examination, a portal to imaginative interventions that frame and reframe Norberg-Schulz’s legacy from ever different angles. A true tour de force, as insightful and critically demanding as creative and aesthetically playful! * Lutz Koepnick, Vanderbilt University, USA *A truly original piece of work with an innovative methodology that combines archival historical research with artistic and documentary film practice. Andersen provides a situated critical evaluation of the work and ideas of an influential, yet misunderstood, figure in the history, theory and practice of 20th century architecture, approaching the subject matter with intelligence and care. * Penelope Haralambidou, University College London, UK *Table of ContentsList of illustrations Framework Christian Norberg-Schulz (1926-2000) The Essay form in Film and Writing Itinerary Acknowledgements Maps Window 1 | Trondheim Place Practice Essay: The Sound of a Windowpane Shattering Window 2 | Oslo Place Practice Essay: By the Window Window 3 | Journey Place Practice Essay: At the Window of a Train Window 4 | Hamburg – Basel Place Practice Essay: Three Windows on Europe 1945 Window 5 | Rome Place Practice Essay: Fill in that window! Move into that Frame! Window 6 | Piazza Navona Place Practice Essay: A Campari-Moment by the Water Fountain Window 7 | Calcata Place Practice Essay: Are we not here to Say…Window Window 8 | Sierre Place Practice Essay: Les Fenêtres – en norvégien Window 9 | Oslo Place Practice Essay: Returned, X-rayed and Exposed Window 10 | Trondheim Place Practice Essay: Beyond the Network – ‘Upon’ Return Coda Appendix Christian Norberg-Schulz’s CV Books by or about Rainer Maria Rilke in Christian Norberg-Schulz’s Library References to Rainer Maria Rilke in Christian Norberg-Schulz’s Authorship Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisIn the 1940s and 1950s, hundreds of art documentaries were produced, many of them being highly personal, poetic, reflexive and experimental films that offer a thrilling cinematic experience. With the exception of Alain Resnais's Van Gogh (1948), Henri-Georges Clouzot's Le Mystère Picasso (1956) and a few others, most of them have received only scant scholarly attention. This book aims to rectify this situation by discussing the most lyrical, experimental and influential post-war art documentaries, connecting them to contemporaneous museological developments and Euro-American cultural and political relationships. With contributors with expertise across art history and film studies, Art in the Cinema draws attention to film projects by André Bazin, Ilya Bolotowsky, Paul Haesaerts, Carlo Ragghianti, John Read, Dudley Shaw Aston, Henri Storck and Willard Van Dyke among others.Trade ReviewThis remarkable book charts the development, as well as the public and critical acceptance, of the art film documentary at the mid-point of the 20th century. In a series of elegantly written and deeply perceptive essays by some of the most respected authorities in the field, such classic films as The Mystery of Picasso (1956), Henry Moore (1951), and the experimental feature film Pictura (1951) are brought back to public attention in a volume that is an essential text for both cinema historians and art lovers as well. A dazzling volume in every respect – bravo! -- Wheeler Winston Dixon, James Ryan Professor of Film Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USAIt is not well-known today that in the aftermath of World War II, emerging trends in media and international alliances, ideas about mass communication and the democratization of culture, and representation of national identity converged to produce a "golden age" of films about art and artists in Europe and the U.S. Art in Cinema is an invaluable resource on the mid-century heyday of the art documentary. -- Susan Felleman, Professor, Art History & Film and Media Studies, University of South Carolina, USATable of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgements Introduction: The Mid-Century Celluloid Museum, Steven Jacobs (Ghent University & Antwerp University, Belgium) & Dimitrios Latsis (Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada) 1. The Institutional Breeding Grounds of the Postwar Film on Art, Birgit Cleppe (Ghent University, Belgium) 2. American Art Comes of Age: Documentaries and the Nation at the Dawn of the Cold War, Dimitrios Latsis (Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada) 3. Art History with a Camera: Rubens (1948) and Paul Haesaerts’s Concept of Cinéma Critique, Steven Jacobs (Ghent University & Antwerp University, Belgium) & Joséphine-Charlotte Vandekerckhove (Ghent University, Belgium & Verona University, Italy) 4. Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti’s Critolfims and Beyond: From Cinema to Information Technology, Emanuele Pellegrini (IMT School for Advanced Studies, Italy) 5. André Bazin’s Art Documentary in Saintonge, Angela Dalle Vacche (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA) 6. Projecting Cultural Diplomacy: Cold War Politics, Films on Art, and Willard Van Dyke’s The Photographer, Natasha Ritsma (Loyola University Museum of Art, USA) 7. Henry Moore and A Sculptor’s Landscape: Modernity, the Land and the Bomb in Two Television Films by John Read, John Wyver (University of Westminster, UK) 8. Creative Process, Material Inscription and Dudley Shaw Ashton’s Figures in a Landscape (1953), Lucy Reynolds (University of Westminster, UK) 9. Neoplasticism and Cinema: Ilya Bolotowsky’s Experimental Films on Art, Henning Engelke (Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany) Mid-Twentieth-Century Art Documentaries: A Selected Bibliography About the Authors Index

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Book SynopsisThe first academic book to approach mountain film culture from transgeneric, transnational, ecotritical, and transmedial perspectives.

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisWhat does it mean to be a documentary filmmaker in today''s world? How are new technologies changing documentary filmmaking? What new forms of documentary are emerging? Recent technological developments have made the making and distribution of documentary films easier and more widespread than ever before. Creative Documentary: Theory and Practice is an innovative and essential guide that comprehensively embraces these changing contexts and provides you with the ideas, methods, and critical understanding to support successful documentary making. It helps the aspiring ''total filmmaker'' understand the contemporary contexts for production, equipping you also with the understanding of creativity and visual storytelling you''ll need to excel. Bridging the gap between theory and practice, it outlines the contemporary, institutional, practical and financial contexts for production - always encouraging innovation and originality.Key features: <

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