Documenting ourselves

What happens when we turn the camera on ourselves? This question has long plagued documentary filmmakers concerned with issues of reflexivity, subject participation, and self-consciousness. Documenting Ourselves includes interviews with filmmakers Les Blank, Pat Ferrero, Jorge Preloran, Bill Ferris, and others, who discuss the ways their own productions and subjects have influenced them. Sharon Sherman does not limit herself to the problems faced by filmmakers today, however. She examines the history of documentary films, tracing them from their origins as a means of capturing human motion…