Introduction to Documentary, Fourth Edition

"Since its first edition in 2001, Bill Nichols' Introduction to Documentary is the leading textbook on nonfictional cinema. Not exactly a how-to-do guide, a history of documentaries, or an assessment of the specific ethical and aesthetic issues of this production, Nichols's book became an instant classic discussing all of this with clarity and originality for the beginner and the academic, the filmmaker and the viewer. Each part organically updated with new questions and filmic variations, its fourth edition, co-written with Jaimie Baron, offers an even more complex and current approach to the essential book that has been guiding us through the mist of documentary film."-Amir Labaki, author of Introduction to Brazilian Documentary
"In Introduction to Documentary, Bill Nichols created the first comprehensive taxonomy of documentary film form-one that has given generations of students and scholars a critical language with which they can critically analyze and understand the many complex forms of documentary film. This fourth edition, now joined by scholar Jaimie Baron, uses the latest films from mainstream to the avant-garde to analyze ever-evolving documentary film practices in relation to recent theoretical debates including relationships between fact and fiction, the ethics of representation, point of view, new technologies, and hybrid forms. Written with clarity and generosity, the volume is an essential resource for film and media students, scholars and filmmakers alike."-Jeffrey Skoller, editor of Postwar: The Films of Daniel Eisenberg