Nonfiction Film: A Critical History Revised and Expanded - Paperback

by Richard Barsam (Author)

Nonfiction Film: A Critical History covers almost one hundred years in the worldwide development of the nonfiction film, from the first factual films of 1895 to the cinema of the 1980s. All the important nonfiction film movements-the factual film, exploration film, war film, propaganda film, documentary film, compilation film, Cinéma vérité, film on art, films of the developing countries, and contemporary women's, lesbian, and gay liberation films-are discussed, as are outstanding nonfiction filmmakers, including Auguste and Louis Lumière, Thomas A. Edison, Dziga Vertov, Esther Shub, Alexander Dovzhenko, Alberto Cavalcanti, Robert Flaherty, John Grierson, Pare Lorentz, Joris Ivens, Henri Storck, Leni Riefenstahl, Frank Capra, Willard Van Dyke, Alain Resnais, Robert Drew, Richard Leacock, D. A. Pennebaker, Frederick Wiseman, Marcel Ophuls, Emile De Antonio, and Albert and David Maysles. More than 2,000 films are examined, many in unprecedented detail. Richard Barsam's revised and expanded edition of Nonfiction Film: A Critical History (first published in 1973) fills the need for a one-volume critical study of the nonfiction film. It is unmatched in its comprehensiveness, the depth of its analyses of nonfiction genres, movements, directors, and films, and its discussions of historical and cultural influences.

Author Biography

RICHARD M. BARSAM is Provost of the Pratt Institute. He is author of The Vision of Robert Flaherty: The Artist as Myth and Filmmaker, Nonfiction Film Theory and Criticism, Filmguide to "Triumph of the Will," and In the Dark: A Primer for the Movies.