Documentary Film

Paper Summary:

This paper focuses on the development of documentary films. The paper first looks at the role of John Grierson in the development of the documentary film in the 1930s and examines his documentary called "The Drifters". The paper then looks at how Germans utilized the documentary film during World War II, specifically those films made by Leni Riefenstahl. Finally, the paper discusses the development of neorealism during and after World War II and how it borrowed a good deal from the documentary film.

Outline:
John Grierson and the Documentary Film Movement
The Documentary Film in Germany
The Development of Neorealism

From the Paper:

"John Grierson was a key figure in the development of the documentary film in the 1930s and beyond, helping to create and operate a number of documentary film units in Britain and Canada and himself directing a key documentary in 1930 called The Drifters. Grierson also wrote a good deal about the documentary, and while he never wrote a comprehensive aesthetic of the documentary, one can be gleaned from the many writings he did do."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bazin, Andre. What Is Cinema? Vol. II. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971.
• Everson, William K. "The Triumph of the Will." In The Documentary Tradition, Lewis Jacobs (ed.), 138-140. New York: Hopkinson and Blake, 1974.
• Grierson, John. "The Documentary Idea: 1942." In Grierson on Documentary, Forsyth Hardy (ed.), 178-189. London: Collins, 1946.
• Grierson, John. "Education and the New Order (19441)." In The Documentary Film Movement: An Anthology, Ian Aitken (ed.), 93-103. Edinburgh University Press, 1998.
• Rentschler, Eric. "Hitler's Imagined Community." In A New History of German Literature, David E. Wellberry and Judith Ryan (eds.), 785-790. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press, 2004.

More papers on Documentary Film:

• Essay # 84282 : "Truth and the Documentary Film"
• Essay # 83943 : "Documentary Film: "The Corporation"
• Film Review # 128073 : "Documentary Film: "The Three Pillars"

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