"The fourth edition of Bill Nichols's best-selling text, Introduction to Documentary, has been vastly altered in its entirety to bring this indispensable textbook up to date and reconceptualize aspects of its treatment of documentaries past and present. Here Nichols, with Jaimie Baron, has edited each chapter for clarity and ease of use and expanded the book with updates and new ideas. Featuring abundant examples and images, Introduction to Documentary, Fourth Edition is designed to facilitate a rich understanding of how cinema can be used to document the historical world as it is seen by a wide variety of filmmakers. Subjectivity, expressivity, persuasiveness, and credibility are crucial factors that move documentary film away from objective documentation and toward the thought-provoking realm of arguments, perceptions, and perspectives that draw from a filmmaker's unique sensibility to help us see the world as we have not seen it before. Exploring ethics, history, different modes of documentary, key social issues addressed, and both the origins and evolution of this form, this updated volume also offers guidance on how to write about documentaries and how to begin the process of making one. Introduction to Documentary, Fourth Edition will be of use not only to film students but also those in adjacent fields where visual representations of reality play an important role: journalism, sociology, anthropology, feminist and ethnic studies, among others"--

AcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. How Can We Define Documentary Film?2. What Are the Constituent Elements of Documentary Film?3. What Ethical Issues Arise in Documentary Filmmaking?4. What Characterizes the Voice of Documentary and Its Relation to Storytelling?5. What Are the Rhetorical and Poetic Contributions to Documentary?6. How Did Documentary Filmmaking Get Started?7. How Has Documentary Represented the Past?8. What Are the Expository and Performative Modes of Documentary?9. What Are the Observational and Participatory Modes of Documentary?10. What Are the Poetic and Reflexive Modes of Documentary?11. How Did the Nation-State Affect Documentary's Approach to Social Issues?12. How Have Documentaries Responded to Identity Politics and Social Issues?13. How Can We Write Effectively about Documentary Films?14. I Want to Make a Documentary. How Do I Start?Suggestions for Further ReadingIndex