Synopses & Reviews
The first edition of this book provided a major stimulus for teaching about documentary film and television and fresh encouragement for critical thinking about practice. This second edition brings together many new contributions both from academics and filmmakers, reflecting shifts both in documentary production itself, and in ways of discussing it. Once again, the emphasis has been on clear and provocative writing, sympathetic to the practical challenges of documentary filmmaking but making connections with a range of work in media and communications analysis.With its wide range of contributors and the international scope of its agenda, this will be essential reading for general filmmakers and documentary students both of academic and practical inclinations.
Review
"Was television “good” for documentary? Hard to believe this question was once posed, since television has so clearly become the dominant institution controlling what counts as “documentary”. This shift is well reflected in Alan Rosenthal and John Corners thoughtful and remarkably comprehensive anthology, which is a substantially revised version of Rosenthals original 1987 collection. In come welcome discussions not only of “docudrama” and “dramadoc” - subtly different genres - and timely reflections on the spread of “docusoap” as the documentary impulse finds new ways of staying on primetime television." --Ian Christie, Professor of film and media history, Birkbeck, University of London
About the Author
John Corner is Professor in the School of Politics and Communication Studies at the University of Liverpool.
Alan Rosenthal is Professor of Communications at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a documentary filmmaker.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements * Introduction *
Part One: Theories and forms: Documentary as genre * The voice of documentary--Bill Nichols * The image mirrored: Reflexivity and the documentary film--Jay Ruby * Television, documentary and the category of the aesthetic--John Corner * Mirrors without memories: Truth, history and the New Documentary--Linda Williams *
Part Two: The inside view: Producers and directors * The Canadian Film Board Unit B--D.B. Jones * An interview with Emile de Antonio--Gary Crowdus and Dan Georgakas * The war game: An interview with Peter Watkins--Alan Rosenthal * New agendas in black film-making: An interview with Marlon Riggs--Roy Grundmann * Jumping off the cliff: A conversation with Dennis O'Rourke--Tracey Spring * The politics of documentary: A symposium--Barbara Zheutlin * Staying alive--Alan Rosenthal *
Part Three: Issues of ethics and aesthetics * Ethics--Brian Winston * Ultimately we are all outsiders--Calvin Pryluck * The ethics of imagemaking--Jay Ruby *
Word is Out and
Gay USA--Lee Atwell * Building a mock-documentary schema-- Jane Roscoe and Craig Hight * Sounds real: Music and documentary--John Corner *
Bowling for Columbine: A review--Christopher Sharrett and William Luhr *
Part Four: Changing contexts in television * The McCarthy
See It Now broadcast--Fred W. Friendly * An independent with the networks--Robert L. Drew * New boy: An independent with Israel TV--Alan Rosenthal * Reflections on
An American Family--Craig Gilbert *
American High: Documentary as episodic television--Ben Levin * Documentary and truth on television: The crisis of 1999--John Ellis *
Part Five: Versions of history * History on the public screen I--Donald Watt * History on the public screen II--Jerry Kuehl * Historical analysis: Content, production and reception--John O'Connor * Narrative, invention and history--Jeffrey Youdelman * Against the ivory tower: An apologia for "popular" historical documentaries--0Dirk Eitzen * The event: Archive and imagination--Stella Bruzzi *
Part Six: Docudrama: Border disputes * Dramadoc / docudrama: The law and regulation--Derek Paget * US Docudrama and "Movie-of-the-Week"--Steve Lipkin * Death of a princess: Interview with Anthony Thomas--Alan Rosenthal * Dramatized documentary--Leslie Woodhead * Where are we going, and how and why?--Ian McBride