Filled with real-world examples drawn from the author's career and the experiences of some of today's top documentarians, Documentary Storytelling includes special interview chapters with Ric Burns, Jon Else, Nick Fraser, Susan Froemke, Sam Pollard, Onyekachi Wambu and other film professionals.

This revised second edition has been brought up to date with a more international focus, a look at lower-budget independent filmmaking, and consideration of newer films including Super Size Me, Murderball, So Much So Fast, and When the Levees Broke.

What people say:

"…a perfectly timed winner in a much-neglected area. True to the nature of the beast, the book is more about filmmaking as a whole, and how and where storytelling weaves into the overall process. It succeeds in covering every aspect without belabouring any. Not only does Bernard write from the viewpoint of an award-winning filmmaker (she's a writer, director and producer), but the last 100 pages include extensive interviews with a wide range of acclaimed documentarians." — Canadian Screenwriter Magazine

"With the availability of high-quality affordable cameras and editing equipment, documentary filmmakers today enjoy a freedom in shaping their films that their counterparts a decade ago couldn't have imagined. As the new aesthetic is shaped, Sheila Curran Bernard's brilliant and effective [book] aims to guide the Errol Morrises of tomorrow with great advice and practical knowledge that every documentarian would benefit from….. the best reason to own this book is the 100-plus pages Bernard dedicates to interviews with 10 filmmakers who work in the documentary world….[T]he filmmakers' insights into the process of creating compelling nonfiction stories will inspire anyone with a yearning to make documentaries to get off their duffs and do it." — BackStage

"Bernard is keenly aware of the power of persuasive images, and her insistence on complexity and integrity is a consistent theme throughout the book." — The Independent

"What a valuable aid to documentary filmmakers. The importance of a topic won't cut it if the story isn't told well and Bernard's book cuts right to the chase." — Paul Stekler, producer/director of George Wallace: Settin' the Woods on Fire

"Sheila Curran Bernard's Documentary Storytelling is an essential, pragmatic, common-sense approach to making non-fiction films for the student and/or first-time filmmaker, based on the author's deep awareness of documentary film history and theory, and her intimate knowledge of how today's most important documentarians formulate their works." — Gerald Peary, film critic, The Boston Phoenix

"Sheila Curran Bernard's ability to dissect a wide range of narrative approaches and explore the elements that make dramatic stories so compelling make this guide invaluable for documentary filmmakers as well as anyone who uses information and evidence to portray real events. But the value of this book goes beyond its service to story tellers; the consumers of documentary films and all journalism can benefit by more fully understanding the narrative structures that we all use to construct order and meaning in the world." — Pennee Bender, Media Director, City University of New York

About the Author:

Sheila Curran Bernard is an internationally-recognized expert on high-quality, nonfiction media storytelling. Over the past twenty years she has played a leading role in creating, developing, and overseeing projects for national and international broadcast, theatrical release, and museum and classroom use. Bernard's teaching career includes appointments at Westbrook College and Princeton University. She is currently on the faculty at the University at Albany, State University of New York.