The Open Frame Reader (Unreeling the Documentary Film)

This book is a substantially revised, enlarged and updated edition of Double Take, edited by The Raqs Media Collective.

The Open Frame Reader is an introductory collection of essays by filmmakers as well as non practitioners working on the agends of the documentary genre. It highlights the concerns and issues surrounding the creative and technological processes as well as the institutional frame work within which they operate.

Through a wonderful miscellany of imagery, analogy and personal musings, the book explores cinematography, editing, sound recording, research and the relationship of the documentary with its viewers. It foes beyond discussing technique, technology and creative construction to address issues such as censorship, copyright, dissmination and distribution.

The book includes a series of appendices which provide practical information such as listings of organizations educational institutions and readings useful to anyone who is interested in the documentary as a genre.

This readers is meant for any one interested in the genre as a potential producer or as a discerning viewer and not just for the professional filmmaker.

About the Editor:

Rajiv Mehrotra was educated at St. Stephen's College, Delhi and the Universities of Oxford and Columbia from where he obtained an MFA in film working with Milos Forman. He is a trustee or The Public Service Broadcasting Trust, has served on the Governing and Academic Councils of the film and Television Institute of India and as chairman of The Non fiction film Jury for the 50th anniversary of the National Film Awards. He has directed and shot more than 50 documentary films and produced some 200 of them. These films have won more than 30 Indian and international awards including 5 national awards for him from the President of India.

For over three decades he has been a familiar face on public television notably as the anchor of an in-depth one-on-one talk show. He is also secretary of the Foundation for universal Responsibility of his Holiness nominated a Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World economic Forum at Davos.