Originally released in 1998, Documenting the Documentary responded to a scholarly landscape in which documentary film was largely understudied and undervalued aesthetically, and analysed instead through issues of ethics, politics, and film technology. Editors Barry Keith Grant and Jeannette Sloniowski addressed this gap by presenting a useful survey of the artistic and persuasive aspects of documentary film from a range of critical viewpoints. This new edition of Documenting the Documentary adds five new essays on more recent films in addition to the text of the first edition. Thirty-one film and media scholars, many of them among the most important voices in the area of documentary film, cover the significant developments in the history of documentary filmmaking fromNanook of the North (1922), the first commercially released documentary feature, to contemporary independent film and video productions like Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man (2005) and the controversial Borat (2006). The works discussed also include representative examples of many important national and stylistic movements and various production contexts, from mainstream to avant-garde. In all, this volume offers a series of rich and revealing analyses of those ""regimes of truth"" that still fascinate filmgoers as much today as they did at the very beginnings of film history. As documentary film and visual media become increasingly important ways for audiences to process news and information, Documenting the Documentary continues to be a vital resource to understanding the genre. Students and teachers of film studies and fans of documentary film will appreciate this expanded classic volume. Contributors Include: Bart Testa, Carl Plantinga, Caryl Flinn, Catherine Russell, Charlie Keil, David T. Johnson, Diane Scheinman, Frank P. Tomasulo, Jeanne Hall, Jeffrey K. Ruoff, Jim Leach, Joan Nicks, Joanne Hershfield, John R. Cook, Julia Lesage, Leshu Torchin, Linda Williams, Lucy Fischer, Matthew Bernstein, Paula J. Massood, Robert Stam, Sandy Flitterman-Lewis, Seth Feldman, Sheila Petty, Thomas Waugh, Virginia Bonner, Vivian Sobchack, William Guynn, William Rothman.

Beginning in 1922, when Robert Flaherty filmed 'Nanook of the North' in Canada's Arctic, and encouraged by John Grierson and the federal government in 1939 when they created the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), documentaries have dominated Canada's film production and, more than any other form, have been crucial to the formation of Canada's cinematic identity.

Surprisingly, there has been very little critical writing on this distinguished body of work. "Candid Eyes: Essays on Canadian Documentaries" not only addresses this oversight in the scholarly literature, but in doing so, it presents an exceptional collection of essays by some of Canada's best known film scholars. Focusing on works produced in French and English under the NFB umbrella, the fourteen essays discuss and critique such landmark documentaries as 'Lonely Boy' (1962), 'Pour la suite du monde' (1963), and 'Kanehsatake' (1993). Long awaited and much needed, this volume will be an indispensable companion for anyone seriously interested in Canadian film studies.