Grierson and the British Documentary Tradition

1. Grierson and British documentary

--Grierson's vision of documentary-

"creative treatment of actuality"--propaganda in the public interest

--basic concerns, ideas: work; the value of the everyday; documentary and the “hangover” effect

--Grierson vs. Flaherty

2. Grierson (see Ellis, Chapt. 5)

--background?

--contributions?

--compared to Flaherty—evidence in the films we’ve screened?

artist vs. propagandist

storyteller vs. rhetorician

explorer vs. teacher

man and nature vs. social relations

Some of Nichols's initial key concepts:

documentary vs. fiction

--"a world" VS. "the world"

--fiction has a metaphoric relationship to the real

--documentary and the indexical sign

--documentary as argument—what is the difference between presenting “facts” and presenting “arguments?”

claim(s)--what are we to believe? Accept?

Evidence

Validity (connection between the claims and the evidence)