Claiming the Real: Documentary: Grierson and Beyond

by Brian Winston

Overview

Claiming the RealIIdescribes the origins,development and current stateof documentary cinema, and the social, political, industrial and ethical factorsthat determine its production. This new edition addresses the ethical quagmires, digital technologies and proliferating forms that have transformed documentary cinema.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781844572724
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	01/15/2009
Edition description:	2nd ed. 2008
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Brian Winston is Professor of Communications and Lincoln Chair at the University of Lincoln, UK. He has held senior academic posts at UK National Film and Television School, New York University, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Wales (Cardiff), Westminster University and the University of Lincoln where, before his present position, he was a Pro-Vice Chancellor.

Table of Contents

Preface I.- Preface to the 2nd edition.- PART I: THE CREATIVE TREATMENT OF ACTUALITY.-The Documentary and CGI.- The Documentary Film in 1914.- The Documentary as the Creative Treatment of Actuality.- PART II: CREATIVE: DOCUMENTARY AS ART.- Photography as Art.- The Documentarist as Explorer/Artist.- The Griersonian Artist.- Documentary Film and Realist Painting.- The Politics of Realism.- Running Away from Social Meaning.- Poor, Suffering Characters: Victims and Problem Moments.- Serious-Minded Chaps: Politics and Poetics.- He Never Used the Word Revolution.- To Command, and Cumulatively Command, the Mind of a Generation.- Running Away from Social Meaning in America.- Staatspolitisch Besonders Wertvoll.- To Win New Comrades for the Cause.- A Curious Comment.- PART III: TREATMENT: DOCUMENTARY AS DRAMA.- Life as Narrativised.- Chrono-Logic.- Non-Narrative: Works Better in the Head than on the Screen.- Sincere and Justifiable Reconstruction.- PART IV: ACTUALITY: DOCUMENTARY AS SCIENCE.- Photography as Science.- Science as Inscription.- Evidence in the Law.- Technologising the Documentary Agenda.- Documentary as Scientific Inscription: Film as Evidence.- Moments of Revelation.- This Objective–Subjective Stuff Is a Lot of Bullshit.- Kinopravda.- Film as Ethnography.- Film as Truth.- The Principles of Visual Anthropology.- Flies in the Soup: The Influence of Cinéma Vérité.- Flies on the Wall: The Influence of Direct Cinema.- PART V: THE POST-GRIERSONIAN DOCUMENTARY?.- The Naturalistic Illusion.- The Battlefields of Epistomology.- The Difference that Makes a Difference.- What Constraints?.- The Voluntary Consent of the Human Subject.- What Interests the Public.- The Nadir of Human Achievement.- The post-Griersonian Documentary: a tour d'horizon.- The post-Griersonian Documentary: The Farther Shore.- Do Not Be Afraid…..- Envoi.- Notes.- Bibliography.- Index.