This new edition of Bill Nichols' popular text provides an updated introduction to the most important issues in documentary history and criticism. Intended for scholars in any field that makes use of visual evidence and persuasive strategies, Introduction to the Documentary identifies the distinctive qualities of documentary and teaches the viewer to read documentary filmmaking. Carefully revised to take into account new works and trends, this volume includes information on more than one hundred documentaries that came out after the first edition, a more extensive treatment of the six modes of the documentary, new frames and a more extensive list of distributors, as well as his "Notes on reference material, which accounts for the extensive bibliography consulted for this research.