Documentary Cinema: Documentary Film

Some ways to think about documentary -- Description -- Definition -- Intellectual contexts -- Pre-documentary origins -- and more.

A brief introduction to non-fiction film. The D word: definitions, obligations and functions -- Major trends, movements and voices -- and more.

How can we define documentary film? -- Why are ethical issues central to documentary filmmaking? -- What gives documentary films a voice of their own? -- What makes documentaries engaging and persuasive? and more.

Talk to the camera -- Reportage -- Exposé : investigations, undercover and the so-jo -- From lectures to landmarks : history and ideas -- Vox populi : the voice of the people -- Observe the people -- Real life -- and more.

Robert Flaherty's 1934 classic Man of Aran chronicled fishermen's struggle for existence on Ireland's bleak Aran Islands. Stoney revisits the islands and interviews surviving locals about their memories of the original film - and their reactions to making this one.