Documentary Storytelling: Creative Nonfiction on Screen

by Sheila Curran Bernard

Documentary Storytelling has reached filmmakers and filmgoers worldwide with its unique focus on the key ingredient for success in the growing global documentary storytelling. This practical guide reveals how today’s top filmmakers bring the tools of narrative cinema to the world of nonfiction film and video without sacrificing the rigor and truthfulness that give documentaries their power. The book offers practical advice for producers, directors, editors, cinematographers, writers and others seeking to make ethical and effective films that merge the strengths of visual and aural media with the power of narrative storytelling. 　


In this new, updated edition, Emmy Award-winning author Sheila Curran Bernard






New strategies for analyzing documentary work






New conversations with filmmakers including Stanley Nelson (The Black Panthers), Kazuhiro Soda (Mental), Orlando von Einsiedel (Virunga), and Cara Mertes (JustFilms)






Discussions previously held with Susan Kim (Imaginary Witness), Deborah Scranton (The War Tapes), Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side), and James Marsh (Man on Wire).

Genres: Nonfiction, Writing, Documentaries, Academic, Film

378 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 3, 2010

About the author

Bernard, Sheila Curran (alphabetized under B)

Bernard is the Glen Trotiner Professor of Visual Storytelling in the Department of History at the University at Albany, State University of New York, and director of its graduate program in public history. Her most recent book, "Bring Judgment Day: Reclaiming Lead Belly's Truths from Jim Crow's Lies” (Cambridge University Press, July 2024) will be published in paperback in November 2026.

An Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker, Bernard is also the author of "Documentary Storytelling: Creative Nonfiction on Screen," now in its 5th edition (2022) and available in seven languages; and, with Kenn Rabin, "Archival Storytelling: Finding, Using, and Licensing Third-Party Visuals and Music," now in its 2nd edition (2020). Her films include "Slavery by Another Name" and the series "I'll Make Me a World: A Century of African American Arts" and "Eyes on the Prize II: America at the Racial Crossroads," all broadcast nationally on PBS.

#AmericanHistory #African-AmericanHistory #Incarceration #CriminalJustice #Blues #Folk

Reviews

[إيمان الشريف · Rating 3 out of 5]

منذ زمن طويل وأنا أحب مشاهدة الأفلام الوثائقية، ويتملكني الحماس عند رؤية تريلر خاص بفيلم فأقرر مشاهدته. لكن في بعض الأحيان يتملكني الملل فلا أكمل المشاهدة دون أن أستطيع تحديد سبب النقص، ناهيك عن أن أتمكن من كتابة مقال نقدي عن الفيلم.

هذا الكتاب ساعدني في فهم كيفية صناعة الفيلم الوثائقي، وعليه أصبح بإمكاني كمشاهدة تحديد مواطن القوة و الضعف من وجهة نظري، أو الكتابة عنها.

الترجمة جيدة جداً لكنها ليست ممتازة.

أنقصت نجمتين: واحدة بسبب الترجمة، والثانية بسبب حوار في القسم الثالث من الكتاب مع إحدى المُخرجات. شعرت أن الأسئلة في واد وإجاباتها في واد آخر، ومعظم كلامها فلسفي عصي على الفهم.

[Fee · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have doubts about this book. It gives good, solid information and it describes many, many documentaries and uses them as great examples. But it just doesn't work for me. Reading bits and pieces about documentaries doesn't work. It doesn't grab me. It actually bores me too often. I think this would have been better as a video lecture. Or as a documentary.

[Janna Brancolini · Rating 4 out of 5]

I originally read this book to learn the fundamentals of nonfiction film making, including writing documentary film treatments, but it turns out it's also a fantastic read for literary nonfiction writers in general. Highly recommend for anyone interested in learning to think visually and nail story structure, regardless of genre.

[Victor Herrera Guzmán · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book, for people who don't have any knowledge regarding investigation and film making. People with fundamentals on investigation, might be a little boring; the plus, are the films covered and the different points of view.

[Dillon McElhinney · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you don't read anything else, read the interview with Ric Burns in chapter 17. It makes the book worth buying.