The first edition of New challenges for documentary provided a major stimulus for teaching about documentary film and television and fresh encouragement for critical thinking about practice. This second edition brings together many new contributions, both from academics and filmmakers, reflecting shifts both in documentary production itself, and in ways of discussing it. Once again, the emphasis has been on clear and provocative writing, sympathetic to the practical challenges of documentary filmmaking but making connections with a range of work in media and communications analysis. With its...

Over the past decade, movie audiences have become hungry for films based on real people and historical events. Never was this more evident than during the best-picture showdown between The King s Speech and The Social Network during the 2011 Academy Awards, a scene then repeated, with Argo, Lincoln and Zero Dark Thirty in the 2013 awards.. While Hollywood moguls have come to recognize the box-office revenue and critical acclaim that accompany such films and are now fast-tracking many docudramas into theaters, there remains a need for more reality-based film...

This book addresses one of the most difficult questions facing non-fiction filmmakers today: how do you make a successful documentary in an era of media turmoil, network change and increasing financial restrictions? Alan Rosenthal, an eminent international filmmaker and teacher, provides answers via detailed case studies of seven of his own films, which range from high-budget political documentaries to shoestring observational pieces and hybrid docudramas, and treat subjects as diverse as Joseph Stalin, a transported convict and the history of opera. Drawing on a wealth of experience, he...

In a new edition of this popular guidebook, filmmakers Alan Rosenthal and Ned Eckhardt show readers how to utilize the latest innovations in equipment, technologies, and production techniques for success in the digital, web-based world of documentary film.
All twenty-four chapters of the volume have been revised to reflect the latest advances in documentary filmmaking. Rosenthal and Eckhardt discuss the myriad ways in which technological changes have impacted the creation process of documentary films, including how these evolving technologies both complicate and enrich filmmaking today....