Documentary Film and the Law
Books
Nichols, B. (1994). Blurred Boundaries: Questions of Meaning in Contemporary Culture. Bloomington,
Indiana University Press.
Barbash, Ilisa, and Lucien Taylor. Cross-Cultural Filmaking. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California:
University of California Press, 1997.
Articles
Austin, Regina. “Engaging Documentaries Seriously” (2006) 16.3 Fordham IP Media & Ent LJ 707.
Austin, Regina. “The Next New Wave: Law-Genre Documentaries, Lawyering in Support of the
Creative Process, and Visual Legal Advocacy” (2005-2006) 16.3 Fordham IP Media & Ent LJ 809.
Barron, Anne. “The Legal Properties of Film” (2004) 67.2 Mod L Rev 177.
Batey, Robert. “Law, Literature and Film” (2009) 39.1 Stetson L Rev 1.
Bond, Cynthia D. “Laws of Race/Laws of Representation: The Construction of Race and Law in
Contemporary American Film” (2009-2010) 11 Texas Review of Entertainment and Sports Law” 219.
Calder, Gillian. “Penguins and Polyamory: Using Law and Film to Explore the Essence of Marriage in
Canadian Family Law” (2009) 21 CJWL 55.
Cole, Melissa. “Projecting Civil Litigation through the Lens of Film Theory” (2003) 47.1 Saint Louis ULJ
21.
Cooper Davis, Peggy. “What Does Documentary Filmmaking Have To Do With Practicing Law?” 8.1
University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class. 7.
Dow, D. R. (2000). "Fictional Documentaries and Truthful Fictions: The Death Penalty in Recent
American Film." Constitutional Commentary 17(3): 511-553.
Machura, Stephen. “An Analysis Scheme for Law Films” (2006-2007) U Balt L Rev 329.
Millard, Elizabeth. “Exposing Injustice” (2005) 91 ABA Journal 22.
Myers, Rosalyn. “Crime Victims as Subjects of Documentaries: Exploitation or Advocacy?” (20052006) 16.3 Fordham IP Media & Ent LJ 733.
Silbey, Jessica. “Cross-Examining Film” (2008) 8.1 University of Maryland Law Journal of Race,
Religion, Gender and Class 17.
Silbey, Jessica M., “Film-making in the Precinct House and the Genre of Documentary Film” (2005)
29.2 Columbia Journal of Law and the Arts 107.
Silbey, Jessica. “The Politics of Law and Film Study: An Introduction to the Symposium on Legal
Outsiders in American Film”(2009) 42.4 Suffolk UL Rev 755.
Silbey, Jessica. “Truth Tales and Trial Films” (2007) 40.2 Loy LA L Rev 551.
Silbey, Jessica. “Videotaped Confessions and the Genre of Documentary” (2005-2006) 16 Fordham IP
Media & Ent LJ 789.
Sobchack, V. (1984). "Inscribing Ethical Space: Ten Propositions on Death, Representation, and
Documentary." Quarterly Review of Film Studies 9(4): 283-300.
Websites
CBC archives archive.cbc.ca
NFB (also available as an app for iphone/ipad) www.nfb.ca
University of Pennsylvania Law School Law and documentary film project (Prof. Regina Austin) here:
http://www.law.upenn.edu/academics/institutes/documentaries/courses.html
see more about the documentaries produced at UPenn, including the docs themselves, here:
http://elixr.merlot.org/case-stories/teaching-strategies/nurturing-student-creativity-with-videoprojects/student-video-projects-in-law-school2 Or go on youtube and search “Penn VLA” (visual
legal advocacy)