Documentary: A History of the Non-Fiction Film is a 1993 book written by Erik Barnouw. Barnouw was a radio writer and producer who began teaching radio writing soon after he graduated. He taught in Columbia University in 1937 and by the end of 1947, he founded the division of film, television and radio in the Arts Program of the University. He was the chairman of the division he created in the University and retired in 1973. He was also the member of Writers Guild of America from 1957 to 1959. He also worked in the Library of Congress as a television and film expert. His books made him the expert in broadcasting. He wrote masterpieces in broadcasting including a complete history.
His book Documentary: A History of the Non-Fiction Film is not only an informative book but it is a historical account of the documentary and non-fiction films. It contains simple language and a straight forward account which is understandable to all film lovers. The book attracts the readers because of its central idea of giving the film lovers a detailed understanding of the films. Non-fiction films have been the favourite genre of films for many viewers since it emerged. This was because of the facts it portrayed showing real life events and stories.
Thus focusing on the non-fiction aspect would mean to reach a large audience. This was also an important aspect to consider because in the early 1990s when this book was published, the non-fiction films have started to use the newest technologies and attracted many viewers. This book gave the readers knowledge and at the same time helped them to understand the non-fiction films and documentary filming better through their critical history (Barnouw 400).
The book is written in the form of theoretical writing which unleashes the real events from the historical past about the non-fiction film making including documentaries. It is a classic work which uncovers many of the historic aspects which were unknown to the film lovers. In his detailed analysis, the author goes back to the 1895 when the documentary non-fiction film genre actually originated and became popular. The events of the history gradually uncover the turns seen by the film genre till present day. The author does not only cover the aspects straight away but also includes his personal analysis throughout the underpinning of facts.
Barnouw does not only bring a new topic to be popular amongst the readers but also promotes a new style of creating documentaries through his experience and knowledge. The author is aware with the fact that the genre of documentaries has received immense coverage and importance during the past decades because of its characteristics. It tends to convey the message to the audience with real life stories and events portrayed through different actors. Documentary making is very tough and involves a number of people and techniques. Barnouw is aware of the difficulties and aspects involved thus he chose the topic which enhanced the learning and understanding of many towards the non-fiction films (Barnouw 400).
Ever since the society emerged, there are a number of events that occurred worldwide and gained much of importance in the history. As there were innumerable social disasters and destructions which took place in the early 20th century, the documentary genre of filming gained immense importance internationally. Knowing the position of the genre internationally, Barnouw considered an entirely new aspect to this genre which included the new political and social climate present in the society. He examined the medium of documentaries in the light of the newest developments and agendas seen around the globe. With his experience and knowledge about films, television and production he critically analyzed a new view to the film genre.
In the book Barnouw talks about the latest technologies that have taken over the film industry of non-fiction genre. With his knowledge and experience about the latest technologies used to make impactful documentaries, Barnouw has attracted the readers greatly. The latest film making technologies that he has discussed are the effects of video cassettes and cable television. These technologies were the latest ones at the time this book was written. Even though to today's reader this might sound obsolete and irrelevant, the techniques and explanations that Barnouw have provided do not fail to impress today's reader. He writes how these technologies impact the production of documentaries (Barnouw 400).
Since documentaries are a form of films which require great technique and effort to portray the real life events and scenarios, Barnouw focused on the production tools and techniques. These production tools and techniques would allow the reader to fully understand the real picture behind the making of a documentary. The history of the documentary film making is supported by various photographs and graphics which the author himself collected throughout his travels around the globe. The author has not left a single aspect related to the documentaries since they first introduced till the date of the book publication. He has covered the full course of documentary in his unique style of blending art and reality.
The first chapters from the book include the films and biographies of famous film makers from the past. The first chapters would easily catch the attention of the reader while he reads about the interesting works of non-fiction done in the past. Barnouw writes about the documentary films that were released in the past covering the aspects of that time or the earlier era. This eventually included the world history highlighting political, social and economic trends throughout the 20th century.
The analysis of different films, biographies, technology evolution and shifting movements have all been included in the book intensely related to each other. Moreover, a blend of creativity is present with the reality of almost a hundred years of non-fiction filming. Barnouw has managed to make this combination interesting and relevant (Barnouw 400).
Barnouw has presented a poetic and enthusiastic insight of the individual films that he has mentioned. His classification of these films is not done by the regions, but by the respective genres in relation to the order in which they have emerged. In the evaluation of individual films, Barnouw has not wasted time on unimportant films. Rather he has examined those films which are relevant and worthy.
His research shows his immense efforts to make the book a classic masterpiece. There is an immense amount of research which supports the book and its content. Barnouw travelled across the globe to explore the individual films, their filmmakers, participants, scripts and productions. The book is an account of the unpopular art of documentary. The last chapter 'Movement' talks about the latest trends in documentaries and where the future lies. The focus of the book, however, remains on globalization rather than localization (Barnouw 400).
Non-Fiction Film: A Critical History is a historical account written by Richard Barsam and published in 1973 with revised editions coming later. Barsam is a professor of Film Studies in Hunter College, City University of New York. He was a member of the Executive Council of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, as well as the Editorial Board of Cinema Journal and the Board of Advisors of the History of American Cinema series. His book Non-Fiction Film: A Critical History is known to be the best and most comprehensive book of its type. It has said to cover the widest range of films of over a hundred years to explain the concept of the non-fiction film genre.
The book is a detailed account of the development in the non-fiction films since 1895 when the first fact based film was released. The film covers almost a hundred years of non-fiction cinema which includes several detailed aspects which help in enhancing knowledge and understanding about this film genre. The author points out all the important films in the hundred years of non-fiction films and explains them with his own insight. His book is written in a time when there were no intense technological advances seen in the non-fiction film industry thus he sticks to explaining each and every film he thinks is important to understand the theoretical implication of non-fiction film genre (Barsam 332).
Barsam has not only focused and talked about any one type of non-fiction film but instead he has covered a whole range of non-fiction film types. These include documentaries, war films, exploration films, propaganda films, compilation films, films on art and films based on developing countries and their problems. These types of films use several different techniques throughout their making which are explained and examined relevant to each film by Barsam. Pictures and shots from each film is presented and related to the theoretical aspect of the filmmaking. Barsam talks about every important film and its director in his attempt to explain the genre in as much detail as possible.
Barsam also included many non-fictional works based on contemporary issues of the specified era which included lesbians, gays and other such bold topics which discussed the issues of the society. These topics were clearly and openly discussed sounding to the boldness of the book. These films and their outstanding filmmakers were discussed in detail. The author wrote about the filmmaker's ideas and shooting techniques which left a mark on the non-fiction film cinema.
Some of the outstanding filmmakers whose work is discussed in the book are Thomas A. Edison, Auguste and Louis Lumiere, Esther Shub. Alberto Cavalcanti, Dziga Vertov, Alexander Dovzhenko, Henri Storck, Frank Capra, Alain Resnais, Frederick Wiseman and David Maysles (Barsam 332).
The research carried out by Barsam is immense as he has examined and evaluated more than 2000 films since 1895 to the time he published the book. He has presented the evaluation of the films in unprecedented detail. The depth of the analysis is greatly distinguished and unique. The book is unmatched in terms of comprehensive study and analysis. The book covers a number of aspects related to non-fiction films including movements, types, directors and films. Along with the types of films, the author has also emphasised on the historic, social and cultural influences of that era which have had an impact on the filmmaking.
Barsam has divided his book into parts where he divides the first part in the history of the non-fiction films which started in the late 19th century because of the social and political influences to the society. Barsam talks about how the concept of the non-fiction films emerged in the industry. A detailed history about how the reality was perceived and recorded through films is shown, and how this concept was welcomed by the audience because it showed them the realities around them. The intention behind the concept also changed as the societies emerged. The basic purpose, as defined by Barsam of recording the reality was to ensure that the truth is recorded and saved. As the societies emerged and film industry got hit by the various new technologies, the non-fiction films also became an important genre presenting art of the films (Barsam 332).
Gradually the book furthers with the changing trends and then Barsam talks about the films separately in the later parts. He writes about different types of films in different chapters for example the war films have different chapters which explain the techniques and purposes of the main war films explained. By the end of reading that part of the book, any reader can get the complete knowledge about what war films are how they are made and produced and what is the history behind their origin.
In the same way Barsam has lined up the chapters and parts where he links the previous chapters to one another. All the chapters are chronically arranged which would not confuse the reader. It provides a historical and theoretical account in simple language which is understandable to all. The films he chose hold global importance and talks about some very important aspects of non-fiction films such as the British documentary Movement from 1933 to 1945. He also covers many films featuring the World War II and the post-effects of the war (Barsam 332).
Barnouw and Barsam wrote books on closely related topics and thus their works had many similarities and differences. By the evaluation of both the books, it is clearly shown that both the books were written in different decades. Barsam's book was published in 1973 and Barnouw's book in 1993. The gap was of 20 years in which there were various changes that occurred in the society and in technology. By the time of Barsam's book the technology of video cassettes and cable television was not widely used nor were they popular, in fact in many areas the technology hadn't been introduced. This marked the major difference in these books as Barnouw focused on the technological changes applied in the making of non-fiction films while Barsam stuck to the concept of traditional filmmaking and relied more on the different types of non-fiction films.
Another major difference is in the central idea of the book. Barnouw's book focused on the documentaries, history of documentaries and documentary production while Barsam wrote about a wide range of non-fiction films' types, documentary being one of them. In Barnouw's historical account, he included the history of documentaries and the analysis of several documentaries that hold immense importance in the century. Barsam on the other hand, as mentioned earlier, focused on a variety of types of non-fiction films of which documentary was a single one. Barsam focused the main idea of his book on the non-fiction films and because of this his account was severely comprehensive and detailed (Barsam 332).
The central ideas of the books were different and thus, the authors had different films which they examined and evaluated. Barsam included a wide range of films, about 2000, which he explained and examines in detail. On the other hand, Barnouw focused on documentaries only thus he chose the most worthy ones and left the unimportant ones. This meant that Barsam's book was a more detailed and comprehensive book as compared to Barnouw whose book was theoretical and historical at the same time.
Barsam thus divided his work into parts and chapters according to the genres of the films, whereas Barnouw divided his book as per the movements and trends of the documentary films, society and technology. Barnouw included biographies and analysis of the individual films as he researched about them by his travelling and experience.
There were many similarities in their books as well. One of the major similarities was the globalization aspect. Both the authors wrote about non-fiction films and movements from across the globe and did not base their research on one region. This was the best part about these books and this is what attracted the readers most. The books promoted the love for arts and films rather than localization. Barnouw carried out his first hand research through travelling across the globe with his wife and interviewing and meeting filmmakers. The amount of research done by both the authors was immense and appreciable. They researched greatly giving the readers a wide range of facts and analytical theories to understand the concepts.
The two books are considered to be the best of their type. They cover a topic which was unpopular and unknown to many film lovers. The authors gave a clear picture of the history and concept behind the non-fiction film industry. Any person who has no knowledge may read the books and get to know everything within a book's cover. Barsam wrote in 1973 which was way before Barnouw wrote and thus his book was the first best book on this topic. Barnouw then wrote his book later in 1993 and reignited the vision towards the history in his own words making it simpler and straight forward for the readers.
He chose lesser documentaries to evaluate and based the book centrally on documentaries and their production. He discussed the production techniques of newest technologies unlike Barsam who simply discussed many films explaining the history of different types of non-fiction films.
Both the authors used various pictures and graphics which made the books attractive and interesting. They added pictures of filmmakers, film scenes and other real life events' pictures that were related to the research. Overall, both books were classic masterpieces of their respected time periods and helped the film lovers to understand and analyze the critical history. Both the authors were highly learned, experienced and knowledgeable thus conveyed their knowledge in good language and good composition to a vast number of readers.
Work Cited
Barnouw Erik. Documentary: A History of the Non-Fiction Film. NY: Oxford University Press, 1993. Print.
Barsam Richard. Nonfiction Film: A Critical History. NY: Indiana University Press, 1992. Print.
