Looking Two Ways

In this remarkable tour de force through fiction and documentary film making, Toni de Bromhead challenges the traditional distinction between documentary and fiction, claiming that perceiving the distinction as an opposition between reality and fantasy no longer seems useful. Looking at the style and purpose of a large number of documentary films from various sub-genres, she argues that in terms of narrative, experience for the spectator, moral implications, and “film reading”, the documentary genre may provide the viewer with just as much filmic satisfaction-- if not “filmic pleasure”-- as many fiction films do.