Documentary Film

“Before you start an Oedipal quest for the identity of your documentary, take a look at Patricia Aufderheide’s Documentary Film: A Very Short Introduction published by Oxford University Press. Aufderheide tackles almost everything you need to know about the different genres and styles of documentaries, with a range of both historical and contemporary examples.” –Film Arts: The Magazine of the Independent Filmmaker”This is probably the best general and most concise introduction to documentary that has been written to date…scholarship at its best.“–Cahal McLaughlin, Senior Lecturer in Media Studies, School of Media, Film & Journalism, University of Ulster”A provocative book… [Aufderheide] manages to bring together an expansive and exciting variety of works to illustrate the complex nature of documentary’s representation of reality. This book is not superficial.“–Cineaste”An efficient overview of documentary film… This is just the right supplementary book for a class that deals with some forms of documentary and needs a quick survey.“–Chuck Kleinhans, Jump Cut”This is the first book about documentary I’ve encountered that tackles its identity, history, evolution, and major controversies enjoyably and in brief. I marvel at how much ground Pat Aufderheide covers and the clarity she brings to documentary’s many functions, paradoxes, and contradictions. Maybe religion alone has more.” - Michael Rabiger”A vivid survey, Aufderheide’s book reminds us how crucial content and purpose are to the power and appeal of documentaries. When other films help us escape the world, these films return us to it with clarity and passion. This book lets us see how that is so.“– Bill Nichols, author of Introduction to Documentary, Professor of Cinema and Director of the Graduate Program, San Francisco State University”Before you start an Oedipal quest for the identity of your documentary, take a look at Patricia Aufderheide’s Documentary Film: A Very Short Introduction published by Oxford University Press. Aufderheide tackles almost everything you need to know about the different genres and styles of documentaries, with a range of both historical and contemporary examples.” –Film Arts: The Magazine of the Independent Filmmaker”This is the first book about documentary I’ve encountered that tackles its identity, history, evolution, and major controversies enjoyably and in brief. I marvel at how much ground Pat Aufderheide covers and the clarity she brings to documentary’s many functions, paradoxes, and contradictions. Maybe religion alone has more.“– Michael Rabiger”A vivid survey, Aufderheide’s book reminds us how crucial content and purpose are to the power and appeal of documentaries. When other films help us escape the world, these films return us to it with clarity and passion. This book lets us see how that is so.“– Bill Nichols, author of Introduction to Documentary, Professor of Cinema and Director of the Graduate Program, San Francisco State University

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.