Imagining Reality: The Faber Book of Documentary

by Kevin Macdonald, Mark Cousins

Exploring the documentary film, this book traces its development from the first film shot by Louis Lumiere in 1895 to the last shaggy-dog story (Nick Broomfield's TV film, Tracking Down Maggie), and the commercial success of Steve James's three-hour saga, Hoop Dreams.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction

404 pages, Paperback

First published April 9, 1998

About the author

Kevin Macdonald is a Scottish director, best known for his films One Day in September, State of Play, The Last King of Scotland and Touching the Void.
Macdonald was the grandson of the Hungarian-born English filmmaker Emeric Pressburger, and he began his career with a biography of his grandfather, The Life and Death of a Screenwriter, which he turned into the documentary The Making of an Englishman. After making a series of biographical documentaries, Macdonald directed One Day in September, which won an Academy Award for Best Documentary.

Reviews

[Martha · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Imagining Reality argues most persuasively that truth is not merely stranger than fiction, it is better to watch too"

Super interesting, well-made collection. Enjoyable even with limited knowledge about the history of documentary.

[Marc Mc Menamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A superb history of Documentary making and of indeed of the 20th century. Dips in parts but overall a wonderful book.

[Salomé Jashi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recommend Imagining Reality, a magnificent collection of essays constructing a history of documentary filmmaking, to those interested in documentary films as well as the history of mankind of the 20th century. As far as I can perceive it, the book unveils some extraordinary details of human brutality and the filmmaking that has tried to cope with it. The essays open for discussion on the ambiguity of documentary as a form.

read some extracts in here: http://desperate-ingeorgia.blogspot.c...