Documentary Film: A Very Short Introduction

What is a documentary? This simple question raises big issues in this introduction to the nonfiction form in film and video.

Drawing on a distinguished career as a film critic and scholar, Patricia Aufderheide takes readers on a journey through documentary history, discussing forms as various as political, musical and wildlife documentaries, and diary films. She also charts the fierce debates among filmmakers and scholars about the best ways to represent reality and to tell the truths worth telling.

This is not be a 'how-to' manual of documentary film but, more uniquely, an accessible guide to the theoretical and historical underpinnings of the field. Aufderheide progresses chronologically through the development and evolution of the genre, while maintaining topical coherence. Discussion of the ethical and practical considerations that arise with every aspect and in all genres of documentary filmmaking are woven throughout. Aufderheide also delivers insightful analysis of the field's leading figures and touchstone masterpieces.