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is a discourse of sobriety, more about content, subject matter and information than form, style or pleasure.

Bill Nichols' definition of documentary film as a discourse of sobriety accurately expresses a hidden assumption at the core of the documentary genre, namely that documentary film is more about content, subject matter and information than form, style or pleasure.

is a fundamentally rhetorical form that can be reduced to a simple argument.

documentary film is a fundamentally rhetorical form that can be reduced to a simple argument.

is an anti-aesthetic movement which necessarily sacrifices some personal capacity in 'art' and the pleasure that goes with it.

Documentary was from the beginning ' when we first separated our public purpose theories from those of Flaherty ' an 'anti-aesthetic' movement. We have all, I suppose, sacrificed some personal capacity in 'art' and the pleasant vanity that goes with it. Grierson wrote about the dangers of excessive aestheticism as the bright-eyed enemy, which could at any moment outwit even the most principled documentary filmmaker

is concerned with drawing attention to an issue and not itself.

The credo that a good documentary is one that draws attention to an issue and not itself follows from the documentary's epistephilic foundations. Engagement is the aim more than pleasure.

is not, and has never been, completely governed by economic forces. It is usually born outside of markets, in the margins, far from centers of power, away from dominant media models.

Yet documentary film is not, and has never been, completely governed by economic forces. As JeanFrançois Comolli writes, '[Documentary film] is usually born outside of markets, in the margins, far from centers of power, away from dominant media models

is less satisfying than fiction because it fails to give the viewer the same unrecognized return of the repressed, that is, the promise of fantastic unity and integration.

William Guynn, drawing on theory developed for fiction films, has argued that documentary film is less satisfying than fiction, because it fails to give the viewer the same unrecognized return of the repressed'the promise of fantastic unity and integration.

1s 2ission is to educate and enlighten individual citizens and render them capable of rational decision-making.

For Grierson, the mission of this new film form was to educate and enlighten individual citizens and render them capable of rational decision-making. (Rosen1993, p. 78)

is distinguished from feature films in that, in feature films the director is God, but in documentary films God is the director.

In feature films the director is God... in documentary films God is the director. Alfred Hitchcock

documentary film, n.Memes

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