Nora M. Alter is professor of comparative film and media studies in the School of Theater, Film, and Media Arts at Temple University. She is author of Vietnam Protest Theatre: The Television War on Stage (1996); Projecting History: German Nonfiction Cinema, 1967-2000 (2002); and Chris Marker (2006) and coeditor (with Timothy Corrigan) of Essays on the Essay Film (Columbia, 2017).

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Beginnings2. Speaking Essays or Interruptions3. The Essay Film as Archive and Repository of Memories4. The Essay Film as the Fourth Estate5. The Artist Essay: Expanding the Field and the Turn to Video6. New Migrations: Third Cinema and the Essay Film7. Beyond the Cinematic Screen: Installations and the InternetNotesBibliographyIndex

For many years, Nora Alter has been our most brilliant advocate of the essay film as an open genre that floats between documentary, fiction, and the art film. The Essay Film After Fact and Fiction is the first comprehensive survey of this difficult and experimental genre in both its historical context and variable aesthetic manifestations. The depth and complexity of Alter’s account of the essay film’s critical force and aesthetic innovations will not soon be surpassed.

Nora M. Alter is professor of comparative film and media studies in the School of Theater, Film, and Media Arts at Temple University. She is author of Vietnam Protest Theatre: The Television War on Stage (1996); Projecting History: German Nonfiction Cinema, 1967-2000 (2002); and Chris Marker (2006) and coeditor (with Timothy Corrigan) of Essays on the Essay Film (Columbia, 2017).

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Beginnings2. Speaking Essays or Interruptions3. The Essay Film as Archive and Repository of Memories4. The Essay Film as the Fourth Estate5. The Artist Essay: Expanding the Field and the Turn to Video6. New Migrations: Third Cinema and the Essay Film7. Beyond the Cinematic Screen: Installations and the InternetNotesBibliographyIndex

For many years, Nora Alter has been our most brilliant advocate of the essay film as an open genre that floats between documentary, fiction, and the art film. The Essay Film After Fact and Fiction is the first comprehensive survey of this difficult and experimental genre in both its historical context and variable aesthetic manifestations. The depth and complexity of Alter’s account of the essay film’s critical force and aesthetic innovations will not soon be surpassed.

Nora M. Alter is professor of comparative film and media studies in the School of Theater, Film, and Media Arts at Temple University. She is author of Vietnam Protest Theatre: The Television War on Stage (1996); Projecting History: German Nonfiction Cinema, 1967-2000 (2002); and Chris Marker (2006) and coeditor (with Timothy Corrigan) of Essays on the Essay Film (Columbia, 2017).

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Beginnings2. Speaking Essays or Interruptions3. The Essay Film as Archive and Repository of Memories4. The Essay Film as the Fourth Estate5. The Artist Essay: Expanding the Field and the Turn to Video6. New Migrations: Third Cinema and the Essay Film7. Beyond the Cinematic Screen: Installations and the InternetNotesBibliographyIndex

For many years, Nora Alter has been our most brilliant advocate of the essay film as an open genre that floats between documentary, fiction, and the art film. The Essay Film After Fact and Fiction is the first comprehensive survey of this difficult and experimental genre in both its historical context and variable aesthetic manifestations. The depth and complexity of Alter’s account of the essay film’s critical force and aesthetic innovations will not soon be surpassed.