Claiming the Real

CLAIMING THE REAL II tells the story of the emergence, development and current state of documentary film emerged and addresses the social, political, industrial and ethical factors that have determined documentary production, esepcially in the English-speaking world. John Grierson's definition of the documentary as 'the creative treatment of actuality' appears increasingly inadequate in the face of theoretical sophistication, ethical quagmires and digital's undermining of the photographic image's intrinsic claim on the real. Documentary forms are proliferating. No longer does the 'fly-on-wall' direct cinema style - creative treatment's purest form - sum up the documentary. Diverse forms such as agitprop and advocacy, animated documentary and CGI, satire, poetry and pictorialism, docusoaps, dramadocs and documusicals, excluded feminist, minority and other marginalised voices and first person documentaries, mockumentaries and rockumentaries, never mind 'reality' television - all assert their documentary status. Brian Winston's illuminating history of the documentary is interwoven with considerations of ethical and theoretical concerns. This revised and updated edition includes a restructured last section on 'The Post-Griersonian Documentary'; addresses the issues raised by the richness of recent work, and offers a new definition of documentary that responds to its current abundance.