Contemporary film offers an insight into the world in which we live, and reflects our ambitions, our concerns and our fears. And it is often in the sphere of popular cinema, regularly overlooked by the critical cognoscenti, where we find the most interesting and relevant examples of work that can tell us something about ourselves, today. Splice is intended to bridge the gap between contemporary, often blockbuster, cinema and intelligent discourse for educators. Volume 6 issue 1: The Documentary Issue Real Entertainment: Star Directors and the Modern Documentary Peter Turner on Spurlock, Moore and Macdonald and their impact on documentary today. The Documentaries of Werner Herzog David Moorhead considers the prolific German film-maker s argument for the documentary as poetic, ecstatic truth. The Construction of War Symon Quy on war documentaries since 9/11 and their status as dramatised witnessing. Wisconsin Gothic, the Wire Walker and the Chimp Jerome Monahan asses the documentary work of Oscar-winner James Marsh. Etre et Avoir Isabelle Vanderschelden on the classic depiction of life in a small French classroom, and how it fits into the French documentary tradition. The Power of Memory James Clarke considers the documentary aesthetic of Steven Spielberg and his Shoah Visual History Foundation. If There s Only One Film You Use, Make it...Catfish Rona Murray on the real Social Network and the thorny issues about truth and representation in documentary that arise.
