Oscar-winning documentary-maker Kevin Macdonald (One Day in September, Touching the Void) and leading broadcaster/historian Mark Cousins (The Story of Film) offer an expanded, revised edition of their 'definitive, inspirational' (The Independent) compendium on the roots and history of the documentary film. Imagining Reality celebrates documentary as a vibrant, polemical, experimental and entertaining form, by gathering a wide-ranging collection of writings by and about such groundbreaking documentary-makers as Vertov, Flaherty, Marcel Ophuls, Chris Marker, Kieslowski, Claude Lanzmann, and Nick Broomfield.


The story is carried up to date by attention to the success documentaries have had among mainstream movie audiences in recent years, including Michael Moore's Bowling For Columbine and Fahrenheit9/11, The Buena Vista Social Club, Spellbound, Capturing The Friedmans, Etre Et Avoir and The Fog Of War.