Eric Ames is associate professor of German and a member of the cinema studies faculty at the University of Washington. He is coeditor of Germany’s Colonial Pasts and author of Carl Hagenbeck’s Empire of Entertainments.

• ContentsAcknowledgmentsThe Minnesota DeclarationIntroduction: Werner Herzog, Documentary Outsider1. Sensational BodiesGame in the SandHandicapped FutureLand of Silence and DarknessWodaabe2. Moving LandscapesThe Dark Glow of the MountainsFata Morgana, La SoufriÈreLessons of DarknessWheel of Time3. Ecstatic JourneysHuie’s SermonBells from the DeepPilgrimage4. Baroque VisionsThe Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver SteinerDeath for Five VoicesGod and the Burdened5. Cultural PoliticsFitzcarraldoBallad of the Little SoldierTen Thousand Years OlderThe White Diamond6. ReenactmentsLittle Dieter Needs to FlyWings of HopeRescue Dawn7. Autobiographical ActsI Am My FilmsPortrait Werner HerzogMy Best FiendGrizzly ManConclusion: Herzog’s VÉritÉEncounters at the End of the WorldThe Cave of Forgotten DreamsNotesIndex

"Werner Herzog has long avowed that he hates documentaries and does not participate in the tradition. Eric Ames’s wonderful book lets us in on an open secret: ‘Herzog has. . . added to the vitality and visibility of documentary cinema internationally for more than four decades.’ I would go further: the best of the films that Herzog has made over his long career have been those that, if not called documentaries, cannot be labeled fictions. Werner Herzog’s challenges to the documentary tradition have inevitably become part of that tradition. This book shows us how." -Linda Williams, University of California, Berkeley"Ferocious Reality is excellent. The book centers on how Herzog consistently undertakes an exploration of the limits of documentary cinema and engages with it as performative behavior, challenging its boundaries. Eric Ames analyzes a broad range of Herzog’s films and engages with an array of important theoreticians of documentary cinema. This book is first-rate and innovative." -Brad Prager, author of The Cinema of Werner Herzog: Aesthetic Ecstasy and Truth

Eric Ames is associate professor of German and a member of the cinema studies faculty at the University of Washington. He is coeditor of Germany’s Colonial Pasts and author of Carl Hagenbeck’s Empire of Entertainments.

• ContentsAcknowledgmentsThe Minnesota DeclarationIntroduction: Werner Herzog, Documentary Outsider1. Sensational BodiesGame in the SandHandicapped FutureLand of Silence and DarknessWodaabe2. Moving LandscapesThe Dark Glow of the MountainsFata Morgana, La SoufriÈreLessons of DarknessWheel of Time3. Ecstatic JourneysHuie’s SermonBells from the DeepPilgrimage4. Baroque VisionsThe Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver SteinerDeath for Five VoicesGod and the Burdened5. Cultural PoliticsFitzcarraldoBallad of the Little SoldierTen Thousand Years OlderThe White Diamond6. ReenactmentsLittle Dieter Needs to FlyWings of HopeRescue Dawn7. Autobiographical ActsI Am My FilmsPortrait Werner HerzogMy Best FiendGrizzly ManConclusion: Herzog’s VÉritÉEncounters at the End of the WorldThe Cave of Forgotten DreamsNotesIndex

"Werner Herzog has long avowed that he hates documentaries and does not participate in the tradition. Eric Ames’s wonderful book lets us in on an open secret: ‘Herzog has. . . added to the vitality and visibility of documentary cinema internationally for more than four decades.’ I would go further: the best of the films that Herzog has made over his long career have been those that, if not called documentaries, cannot be labeled fictions. Werner Herzog’s challenges to the documentary tradition have inevitably become part of that tradition. This book shows us how." -Linda Williams, University of California, Berkeley"Ferocious Reality is excellent. The book centers on how Herzog consistently undertakes an exploration of the limits of documentary cinema and engages with it as performative behavior, challenging its boundaries. Eric Ames analyzes a broad range of Herzog’s films and engages with an array of important theoreticians of documentary cinema. This book is first-rate and innovative." -Brad Prager, author of The Cinema of Werner Herzog: Aesthetic Ecstasy and Truth

Eric Ames is associate professor of German and a member of the cinema studies faculty at the University of Washington. He is coeditor of Germany’s Colonial Pasts and author of Carl Hagenbeck’s Empire of Entertainments.

• ContentsAcknowledgmentsThe Minnesota DeclarationIntroduction: Werner Herzog, Documentary Outsider1. Sensational BodiesGame in the SandHandicapped FutureLand of Silence and DarknessWodaabe2. Moving LandscapesThe Dark Glow of the MountainsFata Morgana, La SoufriÈreLessons of DarknessWheel of Time3. Ecstatic JourneysHuie’s SermonBells from the DeepPilgrimage4. Baroque VisionsThe Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver SteinerDeath for Five VoicesGod and the Burdened5. Cultural PoliticsFitzcarraldoBallad of the Little SoldierTen Thousand Years OlderThe White Diamond6. ReenactmentsLittle Dieter Needs to FlyWings of HopeRescue Dawn7. Autobiographical ActsI Am My FilmsPortrait Werner HerzogMy Best FiendGrizzly ManConclusion: Herzog’s VÉritÉEncounters at the End of the WorldThe Cave of Forgotten DreamsNotesIndex

"Werner Herzog has long avowed that he hates documentaries and does not participate in the tradition. Eric Ames’s wonderful book lets us in on an open secret: ‘Herzog has. . . added to the vitality and visibility of documentary cinema internationally for more than four decades.’ I would go further: the best of the films that Herzog has made over his long career have been those that, if not called documentaries, cannot be labeled fictions. Werner Herzog’s challenges to the documentary tradition have inevitably become part of that tradition. This book shows us how." -Linda Williams, University of California, Berkeley"Ferocious Reality is excellent. The book centers on how Herzog consistently undertakes an exploration of the limits of documentary cinema and engages with it as performative behavior, challenging its boundaries. Eric Ames analyzes a broad range of Herzog’s films and engages with an array of important theoreticians of documentary cinema. This book is first-rate and innovative." -Brad Prager, author of The Cinema of Werner Herzog: Aesthetic Ecstasy and Truth