Representing Reality: Issues and Concepts in Documentary

by Bill Nichols

". . . a valuable and important book . . ." ―The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory

Representing Reality is the first book to offer a conceptual overview of documentary filmmaking practice. It addresses numerous social issues and how they are presented to the viewer by means of style, rhetoric, and narrative technique. The volume poses questions about the relationship of the documentary tradition to power, the body, authority, knowledge, and our experience of history. This study advances the pioneering work of Nichols's earlier book, Ideology and the Image.

"[Nichols] has written a road-block of a book which reconfigures the debate on the documentary at a new level of sophistication and complexity which can only be ignored at the risk of ignoring the whole area of documentary film." ―Sight and Sound

" . . . the most important book on documentary film yet published." ―Canadian Journal of Film Studies

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Art, Academic

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Bill Nichols (born 1942) is an American film critic and theoretician best known for his pioneering work as founder of the contemporary study of documentary film. His 1991 book, Representing Reality: Issues and Concepts in Documentary, applied modern film theory to the study of documentary film for the first time. It has been followed by scores of books by others and by additional books and essays by Nichols. The first volume of his two-volume anthology Movies and Methods (1976, 1985) helped to establish film studies as an academic discipline.

Bill Nichols is Professor Emeritus in the Cinema Department at San Francisco State University and Chair of the Documentary Film Institute advisory board.

Reviews

[Taylor]

One day I might take some time to put together something of a real review in reference to this book, but until then I'll just say that it contains two of the most aesthetically beautiful, intellectually stunning passages I've read in the last year, and it's a critical studies text. Think about that for a minute. The chapter on axiographics is indispensable and Nichols's ideas of magnitude in relation to reflexive (and perhaps more interestingly) non-reflexive documentary are extremely complex while thoroughly contextualized within a group of film of which most readers will surely recognize at least one. It will most certainly take more than one read, and at times Nichols' ultra-lucid style can become monotonous, but every now and then you hit a linguistic vein of gold, as valuable as it is beautiful.

[skylar lokota]

*3.5 stars

Easy to understand: 3/5
- I have never studied film before so a lot of new concepts have been introduced
- so it's a little hard for me to read, since I have to lookup what he's talking about a lot
Introduces new concepts well: 4/5
- the central concepts are introduced very well (concepts in documentary, that is, not film terms
as a whole
Used effectively by the professor: 5/5
- my professor utilizes this book heavily in the lesson
- also explained parts that confused me
Necessary to the course: 2/5
- while necessary for the week, I do not think it impacted the overall course too much
Overall Score: 3.5/5

[NoSeKien]

Lectura solamente del capítulo 2 ("Modalidades documentales de representación"). Agradezco que el mismo libro sobriamente confiesa que las 4 modalidades propuestas no serían las únicas, aspecto explorado en clases del ramo "Teoría del documental" abordada por el profesor Claudio Valdés, en donde se consideró que el estilo emergente del "Webdoc" iría más allá de alguna de las 4 modalidades. El mismo Nichols lo reconocería en parte.

La lectura sirvió personalmente de guía para diferenciar los fines de lo que sería un documental que USA tanto a los medios como a las personas como si fueran un recurso con el fin de llegar al relato que se quiere; un documental que no usa a las personas como recurso, pero esto último de forma limitante puesto que se usa sin reflexionar al medio de por sí; un documental que reflexiona incluso del medio y el uso de sus recursos para llegar a producirse el documental en sí, presentando sus propias fracturas importantes a considerar si es que se busca el hacer u observar documentales para "conocer la realidad"; etc.

[Alberto Martínez]

Está chido cómo los textos comienzan tratando de puntualizar situaciones muy específicas del documental y el aparato cinematográfico, sin embargo, conforme van avanzando los capítulos el autor (lo reconoce) se va metiendo cada vez más en un embrollo que excede cualquier marco discursivo.
Al final parece que queda clara la diferencia entre documental y cine ficcional. ¿O no?
Más o menos. Creo.

[Josefa Infante]

más denso de lo que pensé

[Niall Roland]

Illuminating but, dense AF at times.

[callme papi]

Like the Bible but for documentaries

[Dan Humphrey]

Required reading for anyone who wants to think seriously about documentary film. One of the minority of academic books that's actually beautifully written.

[Patriciacabrinha]

A "must have" for all working in journalism and documentary production.