Book description
This new edition of Bill Nichols's bestselling text provides an
up-to-date introduction to the most important issues in documentary
history and criticism. Designed for students in any field that makes
use of visual evidence and persuasive strategies, Introduction to
Documentary identifies the distinguishing qualities of documentary and
teaches the viewer how to read documentary film. Each chapter takes up
a discrete question, from "How did documentary filmmaking get
started?" to "Why are ethical issues central to documentary
filmmaking?" Carefully revised to take account of new work and
trends, this volume includes information on more than 100
documentaries released since the first edition, an expanded treatment
of the six documentary modes, new still images, and a greatly expanded
list of distributors.
"Bill Nichols' work is always original, provocative, and
deeply rooted in his understanding of what we're trying to do....
Introduction to Documentary is loaded with original clear thinking and
precise attention to the actual mechanics of documentary making and
documentary functioning in the real world.... Bravo." -Jon Else,
University of California at Berkeley and producer and director of The
Day After Trinity and Sing Faster
Bill Nichols is Professor of Cinema at San Francisco State
University and author of Representing Reality: Issues and Concepts in
Documentary (IUP, 1992) and Blurred Boundaries: Questions of Meaning
in Contemporary Culture (IUP, 1995).
