Chapter one of Cross-Cultural Filmmaking (twenty pages) is a mini-history of styles in documentary filmmaking. Chapter two (sixty pages) considers issues of methodology, ethics, and collaboration (especially between filmmakers and anthropologists). I found these two chapters really interesting, but, being a dunderhead even with a point-and-click camera, the rest of Cross-Cultural Filmmaking was way outside my ken and I only glanced at a few sections. Part two ("Nuts and Bolts") covers the technical details of shooting, recording, and choosing equipment; part three covers preproduction, production, postproduction and distribution. Cross-Cultural Filmmaking is very much a practical handbook rather than a theoretical treatise: the goal seems to have been to provide all the information a novice filmmaker would need. It is obviously aimed at students, but would probably be useful more broadly.

January 1998

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Related reviews:

- more ethnography
- books about film + television
- books published by University of California Press