Imagining reality: The Faber book of the documentary

by Kevin Macdonald, Mark Cousins

In Imaging The Faber Book of Documentary, Oscar-winning documentary-maker Kevin Macdonald (One Day in September, Touching the Void) and leading broadcaster/historian Mark Cousins (The Story of Film) offer an expanded, revised edition of their 'definitive, inspirational' (Independent) compendium on the roots and history of the documentary film. Imagining Reality takes the reader on a tour of the evolution of documentary film as an increasingly vibrant, polemical, experimental and entertaining form. It gathers a wide-ranging collection of writings by and about such groundbreaking documentary-makers as Vertov, Flaherty, Marcel Ophuls, Chris Marker, Kieslowski, Claude Lanzmann, and Nick Broomfield. The story is carried up to date by attention to the success documentaries have had among mainstream movie audiences in recent years, including Michael Moore's Bowling For Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11, The Buena Vista Social Club, Spellbound, Capturing The Friedmans, �tre Et Avoir, and The Fog Of War.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published April 9, 1998

About the author

Kevin Macdonald is a Scottish director, best known for his films One Day in September, State of Play, The Last King of Scotland and Touching the Void.
Macdonald was the grandson of the Hungarian-born English filmmaker Emeric Pressburger, and he began his career with a biography of his grandfather, The Life and Death of a Screenwriter, which he turned into the documentary The Making of an Englishman. After making a series of biographical documentaries, Macdonald directed One Day in September, which won an Academy Award for Best Documentary.

Reviews

[Martha]

"Imagining Reality argues most persuasively that truth is not merely stranger than fiction, it is better to watch too"

Super interesting, well-made collection. Enjoyable even with limited knowledge about the history of documentary.

[Marc Mc Menamin]

A superb history of Documentary making and of indeed of the 20th century. Dips in parts but overall a wonderful book.

[Salomé Jashi]

I recommend Imagining Reality, a magnificent collection of essays constructing a history of documentary filmmaking, to those interested in documentary films as well as the history of mankind of the 20th century. As far as I can perceive it, the book unveils some extraordinary details of human brutality and the filmmaking that has tried to cope with it. The essays open for discussion on the ambiguity of documentary as a form.

read some extracts in here: http://desperate-ingeorgia.blogspot.c...