Documentary Film: A Very Short Introduction - Softcover

Aufderheide, Patricia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0195182707 ISBN 13: 9780195182705

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2007

Synopsis

Documentary film can encompass anything from Robert Flaherty's pioneering ethnography Nanook of the North to Michael Moore's anti-Iraq War polemic Fahrenheit 9/11, from Dziga Vertov's artful Soviet propaganda piece Man with a Movie Camera to Luc Jacquet's heart-tugging wildlife epic March of the Penguins. In this concise, crisply written guide, Patricia Aufderheide takes readers along the diverse paths of documentary history and charts the lively, often fierce debates among filmmakers and scholars about the best ways to represent reality and to tell the truths worth telling.

Beginning with an overview of the central issues of documentary filmmaking--its definitions and purposes, its forms and founders--Aufderheide focuses on several of its key subgenres, including public affairs films, government propaganda (particularly the works produced during World War II), historical documentaries, and nature films. Her thematic approach allows readers to enter the subject matter through the kinds of films that first attracted them to documentaries, and it permits her to make connections between eras, as well as revealing the ongoing nature of documentary's core controversies involving objectivity, advocacy, and bias. Interwoven throughout are discussions of the ethical and practical considerations that arise with every aspect of documentary production. A particularly useful feature of the book is an appended list of "100 great documentaries" that anyone with a serious interest in the genre should see.

Drawing on the author's four decades of experience as a film scholar and critic, this book is the perfect introduction not just for teachers and students but also for all thoughtful filmgoers and for those who aspire to make documentaries themselves.

About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.

About this title

Review

Questions for Consideration and Discussion:

What are the obligations of a documentarian to provide the viewer with a balanced picture?

How do you know “what a documentary looks like”? What are those conventions that define a documentary? Are their associations positive or negative for you?

Documentary filmmaking is an art form as well as an informative medium. How much does documentary differ from other informative genres such as journalism or nonfiction books in this regard?

Documentarians often have extended relationships with their subjects. How has this relationship been defined by ethnographic filmmakers, who work with subjects in very different cultures from their own?

In many countries, documentary filmmaking has been subsidized with tax dollars. What has motivated these governments to support filmmakers? What have been the effects of government subsidy on production?

What’s the difference between a point-of-view public affairs documentary and an advocacy film?

About the Author

Patricia Aufderheide is a professor in the School of Communication at American University in Washington, D.C., and founder-director of its Center for Social Media. She received the career achievement award for scholarship from the International Documentary Association in 2006 and has served as a Sundance Film Festival juror and as a board member of the Independent Television Service. She is the author, most recently, of The Daily Planet: A Critic on the Capitalist Culture Beat.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0195182707
• ISBN 13: 9780195182705
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 176