Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Exploring a range of issues relating to the achievements of documentary film during past decades, this book also considers their prospects at the start of the new millennium. John Grierson's contribution to the theory of documentary is examined, focusing in particular on his influence on international developments. The way in which documentarians have resorted to a wide range of fictional techniques in what is usually categorized as nonfiction work is considered, and the significance of new technologies like the DVD and CD for further development of the documentary is addressed.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction
• Part I Grierson's legacy
• Grierson in Canada: The peak of his creative career?
• Stanley Hawes: A 'Grierson man' in Australia
• Crossing the cattle drive: Grierson and Australia
• John Grierson in South Africa: Misunderstanding apartheid
• Poru Ruta: Paul Rotha and the politics of translation
• Germaine Dulac and French documentary film-making in the 1930s
• Grierson and the public relations industry in Britain
• Part II The changing culture of British television
• Breaking the boundaries
• Trailing documentaries
• The docu-soap: A critical assessment
• Keeping track of the locals: Governance, television and the community
• Fearful and safe: Audience response to British reality programming
• 'You either believe it or you don't . . .': Television documentary and pseudo-science
• Access, authorship and voice: The emergence of community programming at the BBC
• Through the eyes of the Video Nation
• Towards the defining digital documentary
• Disclaimers, denials and direct address: Captioning in docudrama
• Making connections: The European Convention on Human Rights, the Independent Television Commission and the documentary
• Documentary and the public sphere