Regarding the Real

Regarding the real delineates formal and cultural contexts for the study of documentary film and its relationship to visual art forms (namely, animation, assemblage, painting, photography and architecture). It contends that encounters between visual artists and documentary film practices have produced radical ways of articulating film language and understanding the culture of modernity. Through a series of related case studies, the book demonstrates the importance of documentary to an understanding of the relations between the cinema and the other modern arts.
Taking its bearings from forms of writing that encourage a creative symbiosis between criticism and art, Regarding the real is written in an engagingly essayistic style. Throughout, it charts a fascinating path that leads from Len Lye to Hiroshi Teshigahara, and considers along the way films by figures such as Joseph Cornell, Johan van der Keuken, William Klein, Jean-Luc Godard, Jonas Mekas and Raymond Depardon.

This book will appeal to students and academics in documentary film studies and indeed anyone committed to informed and imaginative film criticism. It will be of particular value to new or more advanced students of the documentary and those interested in understanding how film relates to other art forms.