Again, let me state my personal rule: I’ll buy any Oxford “Very Short Introduction” I find at a second hand store. I must have read a dozen of them by now. Out of all of them, Documentary Film is the topic I knew the least about while cracking the spine.

Patricia Aufderheide’s covers a lot of ground in 136 pages. She traces the history of documentary film beginning with Nanook of the North, the 1922 film considered “one of the first great documentaries” to Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth in 2006. Along the way she deftly handles a variety of associated topics including propaganda, advocacy, and a fascinating look at ethics.

A valuable feature of this book is Aufderheide’s curated list of “One Hundred Great Documentaries.” After reading about them and their significance to the genre, I can hardly wait to grab a bowl of popcorn and watch.

Aufderheide, Patricia. Documentary Film: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford UP, 2007.