A personal perspective on documentary filmmaking, based on the author’s own experiences and reflections on the genre, with a particular emphasis on observational cinema. It includes both practical insights into filmmaking methods and discussions of the intellectual, ethical and emotional challenges of attempting to portray others on film.

The art of the observer is a personal guide to documentary filmmaking, based on the author’s years of pioneering work in the fields of ethnographic and documentary cinema. It stands in sharp contrast to books of academic film criticism and handbooks on visual research methods, being based extensively on concrete examples from the author’s own filmmaking experience. The book places particular emphasis on observational filmmaking and the ways in which this approach is distinct from other forms of documentary. It offers both practical insights and reflections on what it means, in both emotional and intellectual terms, to attempt to represent the lives of others. The book makes clear that documentary cinema is not simply a matter of recording reality, but of artfully organising the filmmaker’s observations in ways that reveal the complex patterns of social life.

Part I
1: The practice of documentary
2: How the visual makes sense
3: Observational Cinema: A Unique Practice
4: Ethnographic film: evolution of a concept

Part II
5: Structuring nonfiction films
6: Filming in a closed community
7: Seven types of collaboration
8: Microstructures of film editing

Part III
9: Films and feelings
10: The life of others
11: The strangers within us
12: How children see

Part IV
13: An encounter with Robert Gardner
14: The percentage of disaster
15: Clearing customs

Filmography
Bibliography
Index