The Documentary Film Book

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Description

Powerfully posing questions of ethics, ideology, authorship and form, documentary film has never been more popular than it is today. Edited by one of the leading British authorities in the field, The Documentary Film Book is an essential guide to current thinking on documentary film.

In a series of fascinating essays, key international experts discuss the theory of documentary, outline current understandings of its history (from pre-Flaherty to the post-Griersonian world of digital 'i-Docs'), survey documentary production (from Africa to Europe, and from the Americas to Asia), consider documentaries by marginalised minority communities, and assess its contribution to other disciplines and arts. Brought together here in one volume, these scholars offer compelling evidence as to why, over the last few decades, documentary has come to the centre of screen studies.

Reviews

This accessible, well-executed, jargon-free collection provides readers with a concise overview of documentary film. -- CHOICE
Edited by Brian Winston, not only a leading scholar on documentary film but also experienced as a journalist and script writer for documentaries, this book becomes nearly as rich, dynamic and diverse as its topic of study... It is clear that documentary film is ready for the future, and this book highlights past, present and future. It is strongly recommended to teachers, scholars and interested viewers alike. -- Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television
Brilliantly set out, comprehensive and properly international: the definitive text for the genre. * Michael Hrebeniak, University of Cambridge, UK *

Author Bio

Brian Winston is Lincoln Chair of Communications at the University of Lincoln, UK. He has an Emmy for documentary script-writing, has taught documentary in both the US and the UK, and has been involved with many international documentary film festivals and the Visible Evidence conference series. He is the author of Media, Technology and Society: A History, from the Telegraph to the Internet, Fires Were Started, Lies, Damn Lies and Documentaries, and Messages: Free Expression, Media and the West, from Gutenberg to Google.