Imagining Reality 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 and revised edition of their ‘definitive, inspirational’ (Independent) compendium on the origins and rich history of the documentary film. This authoritatively compiled collection of writings takes the reader on a tour of the evolution of documentary as an increasingly vibrant, polemical, experimental and entertaining medium. All of the great practitioners are represented, either in their own words or through those of the most insightful commentators of the time - from Vertov and Flaherty to Marcel Ophuls and Chris Marker, Kieslowski, Claude Lanzmann, and Nick Broomfield. After years as cinema’s ne’er-do-well, documentary has recently captured the imagination of mainstream moviegoers, and this new edition carries the story up to date with pieces on the phenomena of Michael Moore, The Buena Vista Social Club, Capturing the Friedmans, Etre et Avoir, The Fog of War, The Power of Nightmares, and the strange beast that is ‘Reality TV’.