Customer Reviews

The Search for Reality: The Art of Documentary Filmmaking

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I expected this book to contain suggestions from established filmmakers on how to film with minimal impact on the subject. However, this book was nothing but a collection of anecdotes on why the filmmakers went into documentary filmmaking. If you're a film student, it could be inspirational. If you're a filmmaker or videographer, keep looking.

This book is a collection of essays of varying quality by documentary filmmakers. There are some worthwhile nuggets, but much of the content is obviously filler. Michael Tobias is credited as the book's editor, but there's little evidence of any editing. The pages are filled with errors in grammar and typography, and many of the essays ramble aimlessly. This is unfortunate, because this sort of book is much appreciated. Gabriella Oldham's 'First Cut: Conversations with Film Editors' will be of more interest to filmmakers. Hopefully, a second edition of 'The Search For Reality' will be treated with more care than the first. Very disappointing.

We feel Tobias' Search For Reality is by far the most provocative,
philosophical and insightful work on non-fiction filmmaking ever
written. The voices are authentic, international, and from the
trenches. This is a must read for every practitioner, student,
and filmgoer.

This is by and away the most important book on documentary filmmaking ever produced. It is no surprise that the author/editor - Michael Charles Tobias - is one of this generation's most prolific non-fiction filmmakers. But the book is a compilation of his most important peers and the result is simply sensational: I can't believe it has not received five stars from every reviewer. This is, without question, a MUST READ for any filmmaker - non-fiction or fiction. I saw a copy in Turkish, and another in Chinese, and I am told it was translated into Korean and elsewhere. I can understand it. Tobias has struck a true chord with The Search for Reality. Long before people talked about reality programming, Tobias had already seen through to the core of the aesthetic and cinematic dialectic. This book is confessional, rich, diverse, multi-lingual, geographically diffuse, and experientially telling. Even if you have no interest in documentaries, this book is a thrilling read, particularly Tobias' own discussion of his early career in filmmaking. A fascinating tour de force that should be required reading, I would think, in every film class.