BILL NICHOLS
SUMMARY OF CURRICULUM VITAE
ACADEMIC POSITIONS:
Professor, Cinema, San Francisco State University, 1987-2013, Director, Graduate Program in Cinema Studies, 1994-2001, 2002-2007.
Fanny Knapp Allen Chair of Art History and Professor, Visual and Cultural Studies Graduate Program, University of Rochester, 2001-2002.
Visiting Professor, Dept of Critical Media Practices, Colorado University at Boulder, 2015, 2016; Film Program, UC Berkeley, Spring, 2005; Critical Studies, School of Film, UCLA, 1998; Theater Arts; UC Santa Cruz, 1990-1993; Getty Research Institute Associate Scholar: 1999-2000.
Faculty member (Lecturer – Full Professor), Queen’s University, 1974-1987.
Other Visiting Professorships: UC Santa Cruz Research Associate: Anthropology, 2000, Art History and Visual Culture, 1996-97, History of Consciousness, 1985; National Humanities Institute, Canberra, Australia, 1989.
CONSULTANT:
Juror, International Documentary Film Festival, Seoul, August 19-25, 2011; International Documentary Film Festival (IDFA), Amsterdam, Nov 17-26, 2010; Host: Master Class with Errol Morris, Nov. 20, 2016; It’s All True Festival, Sao Paolo, Brazil, April 7-18, 2010; Jihlava Documentary Film Festival, Jihlava, The Czech Republic, Oct. 25-Nov.1, 2009, San Francisco International Film Festival, Golden Globes, 1988, 89.
Advisor, School of Communications, American University,Advised on production of Honest Truths: Best Ethical Practices in Documentary Filmmaking (2009).
Consultant: for documentary filmmakers on various topics from the history of documentary to the aftermath of Wounded Knee, and from biography to prison reform.
Advisory Board, Artists Rights Foundation and The Film Foundation, to develop a secondary school curriculum, “The Story of Movies,” 2000-2001.
Guest Curator, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1996-98; Program Advisor, Asian Art Museum, 1989-1999.
Peer Review: National Endowment for the Arts, National Services, 1988, 1994.
Advisor, Thirteen-hour PBS/BBC series on American cinema produced by The New York Center for Visual History (aired in 1995).
Coordinator, First Soviet-American Film Scholars Conference, Moscow, 1989.
Expert Witness, (Arnold v. Fox Broadcasting), intellectual property case, successfully settled out of court, 1991.
Senior Consultant, American Film Institute: proposed comprehensive film education program for the United States; General Editor, AFI Film Reader series, 1984-1987.
External Program Evaluator, Brown University, University of Colorado, and U.C. Santa Cruz.
Editorial Consultant, Duke, Indiana, MacMillan, Minnesota, Oxford, Princeton, Routledge, Temple, University of California, and other presses.
Editorial Board member: Film Quarterly, Canadian Journal of Film Studies, Visual Anthropology Review, Cinema Journal, Cine-tracts, Cineaste, Critical Studies in Mass Communication, Quarterly Review of Film and Video, Literature and Medicine and other journals.
ADMINISTRATIVE POSITIONS:
President, Society for Cinema Studies, 1983-1985; Past President, 1985-1987.
Acting Chair (1976-78) and Chair, Film Studies Department, Queen’s University, 1978‑1985.
President, Board of Directors, 1976-77, 81-82, and Co-Founder, National Film Theater at Kingston, 1976 (a community-based cinématheque).
Chair, Department of Cinema, SF State University, 1987‑1990; Chair, Hiring, Promotion and Tenure Committee, SF State, 1993-95, 1997-2000, 2002-2005.
BOOKS:
Eleven Books: (Speaking Truths with Film, Engaging Cinema: An Introduction to Film; Cinema’s Alchemist: The Films of Peter Forgacs; Introduction to Documentary (3rd edition, 2016); Maya Deren and the American Avant-Garde; Blurred Boundaries; Representing Reality; Ideology and the Image; Newsreel: Film and Revolution on the American Left, and the two-volume anthology, Movies and Methods (widely reviewed, volume one helped define modern film scholarship).
ARTICLES:
More than 35 articles selected for anthologies; over 100 other journal articles address topics from cybernetics (“The Work of Culture in the Age of Cybernetic Systems”) and visual anthropology (“The Ethnographers Tale”) to film history (“Documentary Film and the Modernist Avant-Garde”).
PUBLIC PRESENTATIONS:
Over 175 presentations including: Conversation with Errol Morris, IDFA, Amsterdam; Dialogues with Peter Forgács (Sao Paolo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia; “Narrative Cinema” a two-week lecture series, Beijing, China; “Documentary Ethics,” Augsburg, Germany; “The Most Important Art,” Moscow, USSR; “Cybernetic Culture,” Keynote Address, First Nordic Film Conference, Turku, Finland; “The Gulf War Text,” Yamagata Film Festival, Japan; “Documentary: A Fiction (Un)like Any Other,” a seven part lecture and film series, Humanities Research Centre, Canberra, Australia.
Film Critic, KUSP FM, National Public Radio. Occasional commentator on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition. Numerous film and book reviews.
INDIVIDUAL GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS:
Social Science and Humanities Research Council: 1) three year grant for research on postwar American culture, with matching grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. 2) multiple grants for the development of film study resources at Queen’s University.
National Endowment for the Humanities: Research Fellowship, 1990-1991 and Summer Stipend, 1989, for work on Representing Reality.
TEACHING:
Distinguished Teaching Award, San Francisco State University, 1999; Favorite Professor Award, UC Santa Cruz, 1992 and 1993.
Nominated for Alumni Teaching Award, Queen’s University, 1985.
OTHER:
Co-founder: Queen’s Film Archives, 1978 (a study collection and National Film Board depository).
Producer and director: various short films and videos; Why We (Men) Fight shown at MOMA, 2012.
FULL CV FOLLOWS:
BILL NICHOLS
92 Ramona Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94103
831 345 7326 cell
blog: billnichols.net
EDUCATION:
UCLA, Ph.D., Theater Arts (Film), 1978.
UCLA, M.A., Theater Arts (Film), 1972.
Stanford Medical School, 1965. Completed one year before changing career plans.
Duke University, B.A., Chemistry, 1964.
ACADEMIC POSITIONS:
Visiting Professor, College of Media, Communication and Information, M.F.A. Program in Documentary Media, University of Colorado at Boulder, Fall 2015, Fall 2016.
Professor, Department of Cinema, San Francisco State University, 1987‑ 2013.
Visiting Professor, Dept of Rhetoric and Film, University of California Berkeley, Spring 2005; conducted a graduate seminar on documentary film theory.
Fanny Knapp Allen Chair of Art History and Professor, Dept of Art and Art History, Visual and Cultural Studies Graduate Program, University of Rochester, 2001-2002.
Research Associate, Dept. of Anthropology, U.C. Santa Cruz, Fall 2000.
Scholar Associate, Getty Research Institute, 1999-2000.
Visiting Professor, School of Film, Television and Theater, Graduate Program in Critical Studies, UCLA, Spring 1998.
Research Associate, Program in Art History and Visual Culture, U.C. Santa Cruz, 1996-1997.
Visiting Professor, Theater Arts Board, UC Santa Cruz, 1990‑1993; taught various courses in film and a course in cross-cultural representation for the Theater Arts and Anthropology Boards.
Professor, Department of Film Studies, Queen’s University, 1982‑87; Associate Professor, 1978‑82; Assistant Professor, 1975‑1978; Lecturer, 1974‑1975.
Visiting Fellow, Humanities Research Centre, Australian National University, Canberra. Curated a seven-part series, “Documentary: A Fiction (Un)like Any Other,” June 30‑July 2, 1989 and presented a set of Introductory Lectures.
Research Associate, History of Consciousness Program, UC Santa Cruz, 1984.
Visiting Professor, Film Department, San Francisco State University, 1981; Group Film Major, UC Berkeley, 1980; School of Humanities, Griffith University, Australia, 1978.
Adjunct Faculty Member, Graduate Program in Film Studies, York University, 1983‑1987.
Part‑time Lecturer, Department of Drama, San Bernadino State University, 1973, 1974.
ADMINISTRATIVE POSITIONS:
Chair, Department of Cinema and Professor, San Francisco State University, 1987‑1990.
Head of Department, Film Studies, Queen’s University, Ontario, 1978-1985.
Acting Head, Film Studies, Queen’s University, 1976‑1978.
Coordinator, Graduate Program in Film Studies, San Francisco State University, 1993-2009; Chair, Hiring, Promotion and Tenure Committee, Cinema Dept, 1993-1996, 1998-1999, 2001-2003, 2005-2007.
Conference Coordinator and Host, “Visible Evidence VI,” San Francisco State University, August 13-16, 1998. (A conference highlighting issues of social representation in non-fiction forms.)
President, Society for Cinema Studies, 1983‑1985. SCS is the national organization for film scholars in the United States and currently has well over 2000 members. Past President, 1985-1987.
Coordinator, First Soviet‑American Conference of Film Scholars, “Art and Popular Entertainment: Soviet and American Cinema in the 1980s,” Moscow, Oct. 29‑Nov. 8, 1989. Responsible for structuring the conference and coordinating communication among the American participants and our Soviet counterparts.
Co‑Founder, National Film Theatre at Kingston, 1976. (A community-based repertoire film theater to showcase international and alternative cinema.)
President, Board of Directors, National Film Theater at Kingston, 1976‑77, 1981‑82. –Vice‑President, 1977‑80.
Co-Founder, Eastern Ontario Filmmaker’s Cooperative, Kingston, Ontario, 1980.
BOOK PUBLICATIONS:
Introduction to Documentary, 3rd Edition. Indiana University Press, 2017. An introductory text covering all aspects of documentary film study (Indiana University Press, 2001); Translated into Chinese, translated by Chi Wang (Beijing: China International Press, 2020; Translated into Croatian, translated by Diana Nenadić (Zagreb: Hrvatski filmski savez, 2020.
Introduction to Documentary, 2nd edition. Indiana University Press, 2010; Translated into Italian, trans. Alice Arecco (Milan: Editrice Il Castoro, 2013), into Spanish, Introdución al documental (Coyocan, Mexico: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico, 2013).
Introduction to Documentary, 1st edition. Indiana University Press, 2001. Translated into Korean, (Seoul, Korea: Hanul Books, 2005); Translated into Portuguese, trans. Mônica Saddy Martins (São Paulo, Brasil: Papirus Editora, 2005); Translated into Czech, Úvod do Dokumentárního Filmu (Prague, Czech Republic, 2010).
Speaking Truths with Film: Evidence, Ethics, Politics in Documentary. A collection of essays representing the span of my career. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2016).
Cinema’s Alchemist: The Films of Péter Forgács. Editor, with co-editor Michael Renov. (University of Minnesota, Visible Evidence series, 2011).
Engaging Cinema. An introductory text devoted to an analysis of film as a socially significant medium rather than as a distinct artistic medium. W.W. Norton: 2010.
Maya Deren and the American Avant-Garde, ed. A collection of essays reexamining the work of Maya Deren from a contemporary perspective (University of California Press, 2001).
Blurred Boundaries (Indiana University Press, 1994). Named Outstanding Academic Book by Choice. A study of the indeterminacies between historical and fictional representation. Chapter Five, “Performative Documentary,” translated and reprinted in Diskurs Film: Münchner Beiträge zur Filmphilologie, vol. 7, 1995: 149-166 and in T. Corrigan, P. White, and M. Mazaj, eds., Critical Visions in Film Theory (Bedford/St. Martin’s, New York, 2011): 672-688. Chapter Three, “At the Limits of Reality (TV),” translated and reprinted in Kwartalnik Filmowy (Fall 1998), Ekran 23, no. 35 (1998) and in Media Studies: A Reader (1999).
Representing Reality: Issues and Concepts in Documentary[1] (Indiana University Press, 1991). First rigorous theorization of non-fiction film and video, helped launch the contemporary field of documentary film studies. Ch. 2, “Documentary Modes,” translated and reprinted in Slovenia as “Dokumentarani Racini Reprezentacje,” Ekran, 23, no. 35 (1998). Ch. 6 . “The Fact of Realism and the Fiction of Objectivity,” reprinted in John Orr and Olga Taxidou, eds., Post-War Cinema and Modernity (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2000).
La Representacion de la Realidad, Spanish translation by Josetxo Cerdan and Eduardo Iriarte. (Barcelona, Spain: Ediciones Paidos Iberica, 1997; 2nd edition, 2007)
Movies and Methods, Volume II, ed., (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985).
Ideology and the Image: Social representation in the Cinema and Other Media, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1981). Portions of Chapter One, “Art and the Perceptual Process,” reprinted in Semiotics: The Basics (London: Routledge, 2001). Chapter Five, “For The Birds,” Translated into Chinese and reprinted in Contemporary Cinema, 5 (Sept. 1987), Beijing, China. Chapter Seven on Frederick Wiseman’s films translated into German and published: Eva Hohenberger, trans. and ed., “Die Dokumnetarfilme von Frederick Wiseman und in US-Amerikanishen Fernsehserien,” in Frederick Wiseman: Kino des Sozialen (Nordhein-Westfalen: Dokumentarfilminitiative, 2009): 107-137.
Newsreel: Documentary Filmmaking on the American Left. A social history of the filmmaking group and a close analysis of their film work (New York: Arno Press, 1980).
Movies and Methods, ed. First anthology of scholarly film theory and criticism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976). This volume helped establish film studies as an academic discipline. Portions of the introductory material on Structuralism and Semiology translated into Chinese and reprinted in Translated Articles in Aesthetics (Beijing: Institute of Philosophy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, 1981), reprinted again in Structuralism and Semiotics: Papers in Film Theory (Beijing: Institute of Philosophy, 1987, 2001). Both volumes translated and published in Arabic, National Center for Translation, Cairo, Egypt (2008).
Newsreel: Film and Revolution, Master of Arts Thesis, UCLA, 1972. Not formally published but presented online at billnichols.net.
CONSULTING:
Juror, Astra Documentary Film Festival, Sibiu, Romania, Oct. 16-22, 2017.
Cal Humanities, 2013-present. Advise on documentary film production strategies and funding.
Panel Chairman, Feature Documentaries, Peabody Awards, 2014-2015.
Special Consultant, Documentary Film Institute, San Francisco State University, 2011- 2016.
Board of Advisors, Framing Film Festivals book series, Palgrave MacMillan, 2013 – 2019.
Juror, EIDF International Film Festival, Seoul, Korea, August 19-25, 2011.
Juror, International Documentary Film Festival (IDFA), Amsterdam, Nov. 20-26, 2010.
Juror, It’s All True Film Festival, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo, Brazil, April 8-18, 2010.
Senior Advisor, Honest Truths: Documentary Filmmakers on Ethical Challenges in Their Work, 2009. This Ford Foundation supported project describes what practicing filmmakers see as the best ethical practices in the field and make them available for institutions and individuals engaged in documentary filmmaking in a spirit akin to “Best Practices in Fair Use,” Center for Social Media, American University, 2005.
Juror, Eastern European Film category, Jihlava Film Festival, Jihlava, The Czech Republic, Oct. 27-31, 2009.
Advisory Board and Career Achievement Award host, Mendocino Film Festival, 2009-2015.
Advisory Board of Editors, Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film, Ian Aitken, General Editor, Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 2001-2005.
Advisory Board, Artists Rights Foundation and The Film Foundation, 2000-2001. To develop a secondary school curriculum, “The Story of Movies.”
Consultant, Lumiere Productions, To Tell the Truth, a multi-part documentary series, 2001-2003, 2010-2011.
Advisor and Panelist, Historyand Filmsession, Sundance Film Festival, 1995.
Consultant, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1995-1998. Guest Curator and Adjunct Curator for film and video programs.
Consultant, National Foundation for Jewish Culture, 1999-. Advise on films and readings for a national lecture series related to the representation of Jewish culture and to the holocaust.
Consultant: Asian Art Museum, 1989-1997. On film and discussion series pertaining to Asian film (China, Vietnam, Tibet, Mongolia).
Board of Advisors, Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, 1994-1999.
Consultant: Signal to Noise Productions, New York, N.Y. For a three-part television series on live television shows, news and reality TV programming. Cara Mertes and Pat Aufderheide, Producers. 1994-95.
Expert Witness: Arnold v. Fox Television, et.al. Prepared analyses of Mr. Arnold’s pilot program, Wanted By the F.B.I., and Fox’s America’s Most Wanted, to show that Mr. Arnold’s pilot was the primary source for America’s Most Wanted. Successfully settled out of court (1992).
Consultant: New York Center for Visual History, 1987‑1992. Consultant for a thirteen part television series, American Cinema. Co-produced with the BBC and funded by Annenberg, CPB, NEH and NEA; aired by PBS, 1995.
Consultant: KTCA/KTCI, Minneapolis, 1989-1990. Programming advisor for the Independents series, entitled “Distant Lives,” on The Learning Channel in 1990.
Consultant: Santa Cruz Downtown Redevelopment Commission, 1990. On public support for new movie theater construction following the Loma Prieta earthquake.
Consultant: Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia: served as external advisor for an international search for Chair, Film and Media Studies in the School of Humanities, 1989. English and Semiotics, Brown University: advised on the development of a program in communications, 1984. UC Santa Cruz Ad Hoc Committee on Communications: reviewed proposals and advised on the feasibility of a program in communications, 1985.
Consultant: American Film Institute, 1984-1987. Develop a National Program in film education. Activities included drafting a White Paper describing an overall education plan from K-12 to the general public, initiating a Translation Project (later subsumed by the Society for Cinema Studies) and serving as General Editor, AFI Film Readers (Methuen Press), 1986‑1987. Developed manuscripts on Psychoanalysis and Cinema (1990), Fabrications: Costume and the Female Body (1990), Comedy and Cinema, Ethnicity, Representations of Violence, and Gay and Lesbian Representation.
External Evaluator, Tenure and Promotion Reviews at: Brown University (Dept. of Semiotics), Concordia University (Cinema Dept.), Duke University (English Dept.), Emory University (English Dept.), Hollins College (Theater Arts), Israeli Science Foundation (Tel Aviv), Loyola-Marymount University (School of Film and Television), Miami University (Oxford, Ohio: French and Italian Dept.), New York University (Cinema Dept.), Pitzer College, University of Southern California (School of Cinema), State University of New York at Buffalo (Media Studies Dept.), Tel Aviv University (Dept. of Film and TV), University of California Berkeley (Rhetoric and Film Dept.), University of California at Los Angeles (Film and Television, Theater Arts Dept.), University of California San Diego (Department of Communication), University of California Santa Barbara (Film Studies), University of California at Santa Cruz (Theater Arts Board), University of Illinois at Chicago (English Dept.), University of Michigan (African-American Studies, Film Studies, School of Art and Design), University of Iowa (Department of Communication Studies), University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, English and Women’s Studies Depts.), University of Notre Dame (Dept. of Communication and Theater), University of Texas at Austin (American Studies), University of Toronto (Women’s Studies and Cinema Programs), York University (Fine Arts
46. “Foreword,” ReFocus: The Films of Barbara Kopple, Jeff Jaekle and Susan Ryan, eds. (Edinburgh University Press, 2019).
45. “Foreword,” Documentary and Cognitive Theory, Catalin Brylla and Mette Kramer, eds. (London: Palgrave, 2018).
44. “At the Threshold to the Void,” Nicholas Baer, Maggie Hennefeld, Laura Horak, Gunnar Iverson, eds., Unwatchable, Rutgers University Press, 2019.
43. “Foreword,” Daniel Marcus and Selmin Kara, eds., Contemporary Documentary (New York: Routledge, 2016): xi-xvii.
42. “The Question of Evidence, the Power of Rhetoric and Documentary Film”, Brian Winston, ed., The Documentary Film Book (London: British Film Institute/Palgrave BFI, 2013): 33-39.
41. “To Counteract the Forces: An Interview with Amos Vogel,” Paul Cronin, ed. Be Sand Not Oil: The Life and Work of Amos Vogel (Vienna: Synema Publications, 2014): 242-252.
40. “Preface,” Holly Rogers, ed., Music and Sound in the Documentary Film, London: Routledge, 2014.
39. “Foreword,” Clive Meyer, ed., Critical Cinema: Beyond the Theory of Practice (Wallflower Press and Columbia University Press, 2012).
38. “The Terrorist Event,” Representing Humanity in an Age of Terror, Sophia A. McClennen and Henry James Morello, eds. Purdue University Press, 2010: 127-142. Reprinted as “O Evento Terrorista,” in Moria Dora Mourão and Amir Labaki, eds., O Cinema do Real (Sao Paolo, Brazil: Cosac Naify, 2014): 257-293.
37. “Letter to Lynn,” States of Unbelonging: A Lynn Sachs Retrospective, Steve Polta, ed., San Francisco Cinematheque and Pacific Film Archive, 2010.
36. “Documentary Reenactments: A Paradoxical Temporality That Is Not One,” Beyond the Visual: Sound and image in Ethnographic and Documentary Film, Gunnar Iversen and Jan Ketil Simonson, eds., Intervention Press, Denmark, 2010: 190-211; Tyrus Miller, ed., Given Time and World: Temporalities in Context (Budapest: Central European University Press, 2008): 171-192. Also printed in modified form as “Documentary Reenactment and the Fantasmatic Subject,” Boaz Hagi, Sandra Meiri, Raz Yosef and Anat Zanger, eds., Just Images: Ethics and the Cinematic (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011): 212-230.
35. “The Question of Evidence, The Power of Rhetoric and Documentary Film,” Thomas Austin and Wilma de Jong, eds., Rethinking Documentary (London: Open University Press, 2008; New York: McGraw-Hill Education, 2008): pp. 29-38.
34. “Documentary Film,” Michael Griffin, ed., International Encyclopedia of Communications (Boston: Blackwell Publishers, forthcoming)
33. “Documentary,” in Pam Cook, ed., Third Edition, The Cinema Book (London: British Film Institute, 2007): 81-83.
32. “Foreword,” Jill Nelmes, ed., Fourth Edition, Introduction to Film Studies, (New York: Routledge, 2007).
31. “Film Studies,” in Barry Grant, ed., Schirmer Encylopedia of Film (New York: Thomson Gale, 2008).
30. “The Terrorist Event,” in Mark Franko, ed., Ritual Transformations (New York: Routledge, 2006): 94-108; in Sophia A. McClennen and Henry James Morello, eds., special issue of Comparative Cultural Studies (CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 9.1 (2007): http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/vol9/iss1/14>
Thematic Issue, Representing Humanity in an Age of Terror); also in Maria Dora Maurão and Amir Labaki, eds., O Cinema do Real (Ediciones Colihue, Buenes Aires, Argentina, 2005): 174-195; also in Henry Morello and Sophia McClennen, eds., Representing Humanity in an Age of Terror (Purdue University Press, 2010).
29. “The Question of Evidence,” in Michael Cuntz, ed., Die Listen der Evidenz (The Cunning of Evidence) (Cologne: DuMont Press, Mediologie series, 2006): 86-106. Reprinted in Brian Winston, ed., The Documentary Film Book (London: British Film Institute/Palgrave BFI, 2013): 33-39.
28. “Documentary,” Overview essay in Steven Schneider, Tom and Sara Pendergast, eds., Understanding Film Genres: Film through Genres, Genre through Films (New York: McGraw-Hill).
27. “The Battleship Potemkin: A New Form for a New Society,” in Jeffery Geiger and R. L. Rutsky, eds., Film Analysis: A Norton Reader (New York: W.W. Norton, 2005): 158-177. Film Analysis, 2nd ed (2013): 136-155.
26. “What Really Happened: Tim Asch, The Ax Fight and Leopold von Ranke,” in Doug Lewis, ed., Timothy Asch and Ethnographic Film (New York and London: Routledge, 2004: 229-237; Also in Media International Australia, no. 82, Special Documentary Edition, Sydney, 1996: 6-11.
25. “Historical Consciousness and the Viewer: Who Killed Vincent Chin?,” in Peter X. Feng, ed., Screening Asian Americans (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2002): 159-172.
24. “The Fact of Realism and the Fiction of Objectivity,” in John Orr and Olga Taxidou, eds., Post-War Cinema and Modernity (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2000): 188-207.
23. “The Work of Culture in the Age of Cybernetic Systems,” in a) John Thornton Caldwell, ed., Electronic Media and Technoculture (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2000): 90-114; b) Timothy Druckery and Michael Sand, eds., Electronic Culture: Technology and Visual Representation (New York: Aperture Foundation, 1996): 121-143; c) Andrezej Gwózdz, ed., Technolgie Mediów (Krakow, Poland: Universitas, 2001): 79-112l; d) Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Nick Montfort, eds., The New Media Reader (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003): 625-641.
22. “The Voice of Documentary,” in a) “A Vos do documentáio,” in Fernão Pessoa Ramos, ed., Teoria Contemporanea do Cinema (Sao Paolo, Brazil: Editoria Senac, 2005): 47-68; b) “Rödd heimildarmynda,” in Guðni Elísson, ed., Afangard I Kvikmyndaraedum (Reykjavik: Forlagid, 2003): 191-206; c) Brian Henderson and Ann Martin, eds., Film Quarterly: Forty Years, A Selection (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999): 246-267; d) Alan Rosenthal, ed., New Challenges for Documentary (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988): 48-63; e) Alan Rosenthal and John Corner, eds., New Challenges for Documentary (Manchester University Press and Palgrave, 2005): 17-33; f) Jonathan Kahana, ed., The Documentary Film Reader (New York: Oxford U Press, 2016): 639-651.
21. “Lang, Godard, and A Question of Contempt,” Catalogue for the Fritz Lang Retrospective, Lincoln Center and Anthology Film Archives (New York: Anthology Film Archives, 2000): 54-56.
20. “Film and Reality,” entry for Encyclopedia of American Studies, Mark Cummings, ed. Bethel, Connecticut: Grolier Publishing (2002)
19. “Film Theory and the Revolt Against the Master Narratives,” Christine Gledhill and Linda Williams, eds., Reinventing Film Studies (London: Edward Arnold, 2000): 34-52.
18. “The Documentary and the Turn from Modernism,” Kees Bakker, ed., Joris Ivens and the Documentary Context (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1999): 142-159; also as “El Documental y el giro de la vanguardia,” Archivos 56, 2007: 17-45 (Valencia, Spain)
.
17. “Reality TV and Social Perversion,” Paul Marris and Sue Thornham, eds., Media Studies: A Reader, 2nd edition (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999): 393-403.
16. “Documentary: Theory and Practice,” Eva Hohenberger, ed., Bilder des Wirklichen: Texte zur Theories des Dokumentarfilms, “Dokumentarfilm–Theorie under Praxis,” Berlin: Verlag Vorwerk 8, 1998: 164-181.
15. “Reanimating the Past: Film and History,” in Gaston Roberge, ed., Essays on Communication: The Chitrabani Jubilee Book, Calcutta, 1996: 75-81.
14. “Strike and the Question of Class,” in David James and Rick Berg, eds., Film and the Question of Class (Minneapolis: University of Wisconsin Press, 1996): 72-89.
13. “Documentary and the Coming of Sound,” Javier Maqua and Manuel Palacio, eds., Historia General del cine, Vol. VI, La Transicion del Mudo al Sonoro (Madrid: Ediciones Catedra, 1996): 273-295. Also in Documentary Box, no. 6 (1995): 1-8.
12. “Historical Consciousness and the Viewer: Who Killed Vincent Chin? in Vivian Sobchack, ed., The Persistence of History: Cinema, Television, and the Modern Event (New York: Routledge, 1996): 55-68.
11. “Getting to Know You: Knowledge, Power and the Body,” in Michael Renov, ed., Theorizing Documentary (New York: Routledge, 1994): 174-191.
10. “The Ethnographer’s Tale,” in Peter I. Crawford and Jan K. Simonsen, eds., Ethnographic Film Aesthetics and Narrative Traditions (Aarhus, Denmark: Intervention Press, 1992): 43-74; Lucien Taylor, ed., Visualizing Theory (New York: Routledge, 1993): 60-83 and Bella Dicks, ed., Digital Qualitative Research Methods (London, New Dehli: Sage Publications, 2012).
9. “Form Wars: The Political Unconscious of Formalist Theory,” in Jane Gaines, ed., Classical Hollywood Narrative: The Paradigm Wars (Durham: Duke University Press, 1992): 49-77.
8. “Ideological and Marxist Criticism: Toward a Metahermeneutics,” in R. Barton Palmer, ed., The Cinematic Text: Methods and Approaches, Georgia State Literary Studies 3 (New York: AMS Press, 1989): 247-275.
7. “The Voice of Documentary,” in Alan Rosenthal, ed., New Challenges for Documentary (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988): 48-63.
6. “History, Myth and Narrative in Documentary,” in Willem De Greef and Willem Hesling, eds., Image–Reality–Spectator: Essays on Documentary Film and Television (Leuven, Belgium: Acco, 1988): 167-186. Translated into German as “Geschichte, Mythos und Erzählung im Dokumentarfilm,” in Montage/av: Zeitschrift für Theorie und Geschichte audiovisueller Kommunikation, 3/1/1994: 39-60.
5. “Questions of Magnitude,” in John Corner, ed., The Documentary and Mass Media (London: Edward Arnold Publishers, 1986): 107‑122.
4. “Newsreel, 1967‑1972: Film and Revolution,” in Tom Waugh, ed., Show Us Life: Toward a History and Aesthetics of the Committed Documentary (Metuchen, N.J. and London: Scarecrow Press, 1984): 135-153.
3. “Introducing Film Study in an Undergraduate Context,” in Barry Grant, ed., Film Study in the Undergraduate Curriculum, (New York: Modern Language Association Press, Option series, 1983). Translated into Spanish and reprinted as “La teoria en el aula: una propuesta,” Mirada de tres mundos, 1 (1990): 133-157.
2. “Flicker and Motion in Film,” with Susan J. Lederman, in Stephen Heath and Teresa de Lauretis, eds., The Cinematic Apparatus (London: MacMillan, 1980).
1. “Style, Grammar and the Movies,” Translated into Chinese and reprinted in Reading Material in Foreign Film Theories (Beijing: Peking Film Academy, 1979.
75. “In the Beginning,” Studies in Documentary Film, February, 2021. Citation reference: “Bill Nichols (2021) In the beginning, Studies in Documentary Film, DOI: 10.1080/17503280.2021.1877525”
74. “Thoughts on Raw Footage, Observational Documentaries, and the Cinema” Visible Evidence website (VisibleEvidence.org), September, 2020.
73. “Blood on the Screen: Alex Gibney’s The Inventor,” Cineaste, online 2019.
72. “Morris’s Late Style,” on Errol Morris, Wormwood, Docalogue, an online journal at https://docalogue.com/february-wormwood/, February, 2018.
71. “Now, and Then,” on the work of Nika Autor, Slovenian representative to the Venice Biennale, 2017. Biennale Catalog, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2017.
70. “IDFA: A Festival of Attractions,” Film Quarterly, vol. 69, no. 4 (2016), pp. XX
69. “Remaking History: Jay Leyda and the Compilation Film,” Film History, vol. 26, 4, 2015: pp. 146-156.
68. “To Counteract the Forces of Hollywood: An Interview with Amos Vogel, Cineaste, vol 39, 4, 2014: pp. 4-9.
67. “Irony, Cruelty, Evil (and a Wink) in The Act of Killing, Film Quarterly, vol. 67, 2, 2014, pp. 25-29.
66. “Waltzing with Bashir: Perpetrator Trauma and Cinema,” Studies in Documentary Film, vol. 8, no.1 (March 2014): pp. 81-85.
65. “An Uncle Too Many: Uncle Paavo as a Spectre from the Past,” Journal of Scandinavian Cinema, vol. 3, 1 (2013), pp. 65-68.
64. “Feelings of Revulsion and the Limits of Academic Discourse,” Jump Cut, No. 52 (Summer 2010), accessible at www.ejumpcut.org/archive/jc52.2010/index.html. Reprinted in David LaRocca, ed., The Philosophy of Documentary Film (Lanham, MD: Lexiington Books, 2017): 453-458.
63. “Seven Reasons Why I Love Submarine Movies,” The Velvet Light Trap, No. 64 (Fall 2009): 102-103.
62. Commentary for Two Laws. A feature length commentary with Jill Godmilow on the DVD release of Two Laws (Facets Video, 2008).
61. “Documentary Reenactment and the Fantasmatic Subject,” Critical Inquiry, Vol. 35, No. 1, Fall 2008): 72-89. Published in a modified form in Given Time and World: Temporalities in Context (Budapest: Central European University Press, 2008): 171-192.
60. “What Current Documentaries Do and Can’t Do,” The Velvet Light Trap, 60 (Fall 2007): 85-86.
59. “Questions of Ethics and Documentary Film,” Archivos (Valencia: Spain), 2006.
58. “The Time of the Orator,” Film Quarterly, Vol. 59, No. 2 (Winter 2005-06): 3.
57. “What to Do About Documentary Distortion,” Documentary, 25, no. 2 (March-April, 2006): 28-33.
56. “Falling for Flaherty,” Cinema and History, International Film Seminars Annual, (2005) 10-14. Reprinted on the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar website, tba.
- “The Memory of Loss: A Dialogue between Petér Forgács and Bill Nichols, Film Quarterly, 56, 4 (Summer 2003): 2-12.
- “Los documentales y el modernismo: 1919-1939, Comunicación y Sociedad, XIV, no. 2 (2002): 71-91.
53. “Todellisuuden ja television rajamailla,” Lähikuva (Finland), no. 1, 2001: 6-24. Translation and reprint of ch. 3, “At the Limits of Reality (TV),” Blurred Boundaries.
52. “Documentary Film and the Modernist Avant-Garde,” Critical Inquiry, 27, 4 (2001): 580-610.
51. “The Ten Stations of Spielberg’s Passion,” Jump Cut, 43 (2000): 9-11.
50. “Children, Art, Sex, Pornography: Jennifer Montgomery’s Art for Teachers of Children,” co-authored with Gerald Peary, Camera Obscura, no. 39 (1999): 35-51.
49. “Foreword,” Barry Grant and Jeannette Sloniowski, eds., Documenting the Documentary (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1998.)
48. “Dislocating Ethnographic Film: In and Out of Africa and Issues of Cultural Representation,” American Anthropologist, 99, no. 4 (1997): 810-824.
47. “The Unseen Jury,” University of San Francisco Law Review, 30, no. 4 (1996): 1055-64. Reprinted in Law and Popular Culture: Text, Notes and Questions (LexisNexis: 2007).
46. “Maya Deren: Her Radical Aspirations and Influences on the Film Avant-Garde,” Essay and Program Notes for a Film Series, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, April – May, 1996.
45. “Image and Reality: The Real Story,” Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 16, no. 2 (1996): 267-68.
44. “Leni Riefenstahl: The Power of the Image,” Catherine Soussloff, co-author, Discourse, 18, no. 3 (1996): 20-43.
43. “Reanimating the Past: Film and History,” Sundance Film Festival Catalog, 1995.
42. “Discovering Form, Inferring Meaning: New Cinemas and the Film Festival Circuit,” Film Quarterly 47, no. 3 (Spring, 1994): 16-30.
41. “Global Image Consumption in the Age of Late Capitalism,” East-West Journal, 8, no. 1 (January, 1994): 68-85.
40. “Dear Vietnam: Shadows of Forgotten Warriors,” Cinemaya, no. 17-18 (Autumn-Winter, 1992-93): 10-14.
39. “Sexual Politics and National Liberation: Six Films From Vietnam,” UCLA Film and Television Archives Monograph, 1992.
38. “The Ethnographer’s Tale,” Visual Anthropology Review 7, no. 2, (1991): 31-47.
37. “Embodied Knowledge and the Politics of Location,” CineAction, 23 (Winter 1990-1991): 14-21.
36. “Sons at the Brink of Manhood: Utopian Moments in Male Subjectivity,” East-West Journal 4, no. 1 (1989): 27‑43.
35. “Skinflicks: Ethnography/Pornography and the Discourses of Power,” with Catherine Needham and Christian Hansen, Discourse 11, no. 2 (Spring 1989): 65‑79.
34. “Form Wars: The Political Unconscious of Formalist Theory,” South Atlantic Quarterly 88, no.2 (Spring 1989): 487‑515.
Reprinted in Classical Hollywood Narrative, above.
33. “The Work of Culture in the Age of Cybernetic Systems,” Screen 29, no. 2 (Winter 1988): 22‑46.
Reprinted in a) John Thornton Caldwell, ed., Electronic Media and Technoculture, b) Timothy Druckery and Michael Sand, eds., Electronic Culture: Technology and Visual Representation, c) Andrezej Gwózdz, ed., Technolgie Mediów ,d) Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Nick Montfort, eds., The New Media Reader (details cited in Articles in Anthologies above).
Translated into Finnish and reprinted in Lahikuva: Journal for Nordic Cinema Studies, nos. 1‑2 (1988): 4‑16.
Also published as an occasional paper by Studies in Communication Information Technology Group, Queen’s University, 1985.
32. “History, Myth, and Narrative in Documentary,” Film Quarterly 41, no. 1 (Fall 1987): 9‑20. Reprinted in Image–Reality–Spectator and translated into German in Montage/av, above.
31. “Ideological and Marxist Criticism: Toward a Meta-hermeneutics,” Studies in the Literary Imagination 29, no. 1 (Spring 1986): 83‑107.
Reprinted in The Cinematic Text, above.
30. “The Telefilm We Need,” with Joanne Marion, Francois Lachance, Cinema Canada, no. 127 (February 1986): 7‑9.
29. “Believing What We Read, Saying What We Believe,” Quarterly Review of Film Studies 10, no. 2 (Spring 1985): 153‑160.
28. “Introduction,” for The Documentary Today, a collection of symposium papers (St. Paul, Minn.: Film in the Cities, 1984).
27. “Advertising: Persuasive Notions of Desire,” Impulse 11, no. 2 (Fall 1984): 49‑52.
26. “Stanley Kramer” and “Edward Dmytryk,” in Directors/Filmmakers, Vol. II of Films and Filmmakers series (Chicago: St. James Press, 1984).
25. “New Information Technologies and the University,” Film and the Future, special supplement to Cinema Canada, no. 97 (June 1983): 20‑24.
24. “The Voice of Documentary,” Film Quarterly 36, no. 3 (Spring 1983): 17-30.
Reprinted in Teoria Contemporanea do Cinema (Sao Paolo, Brazil, 2005); Afangard I Kvikmyndaraedum (Reykjavik: Forlagid, 2003); Film Quarterly: Forty Years, A Selection (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999; New Challenges for Documentary, (1988), and Movies and Methods, vol. II (1986). Translated into Chinese at Chinese Culture University, Taiwan.
23. “New Theory in the Classroom,” Jump Cut, no.24/25 (1981): 53‑56.
22. “American Gigolo: Transcendental Style and Narrative Form,” Film Quarterly 34, no. 3 (Summer 1981): 8‑13.
21. “A Visual Analysis of The Birds,” Film Reader, no. 4 (1980): 120‑144.
20. “Whatever Happened to Saturday Night: The Recent Cinema,” Queen’s Quarterly 86 no. 3 (Fall 1979): 383‑408.
19. “Politics and Aesthetics, Reply to Bruce Elder,” Cine-Tracts 1, no. 4 (1978): 105‑108.
18. “Fred Wiseman’s Documentaries: Theory and Structure,” Film Quarterly 31, no. 3 (spring 1978): 15‑28.
17. “Documentary: Theory and Practice,” Screen, 17, no.4 (1977): 34‑48.
16. Program Notes for Revolutionary Films/Chicago ’76, July 9‑25, 1976, Art Institute of Chicago.
15. “Style, Grammar and the Movies,” Film Quarterly 28, no. 3 (1975): 33‑49.
14. “Film Teaching,” St. Andrew’s Review 3, no. 3 (1975): 97‑101.
13. “Programming the American Cinema,” Film Library Quarterly 7, nos. 3/4 (1974): 41‑45.
12. “Redemption and Performance: An Extended Analysis,” Take One 4, no. 1 (1974): 12-18.
Translated into German and reprinted in Kellerkino (1975), “Erlösung und Erfüllung über Performance.”
11. “Newsreel: Film and Revolution,” Cineaste 5, no. 4 (1973): 7‑13.
10. “Horatio Alger and the American Movie,” Take One, 3, no. 11 (1973): 11-14.
9. “American Documentary Film History,” Screen 13, no. 4 (Winter 1972-1973): 108‑115.
8. “Critical Approaches to Film: Then and Now,” Cineaste 5, no. 2 (1971):19‑23.
7. “Confronting the Consciousness Industry,” Women & Film, no. 1 (1972): 38-42.
6. “The Conformist,” Cineaste 4, no. 4 (1971): 19‑23.
Abridged and reprinted in Contemporary Literary Criticism 16 (1981).
5. “Walkabout,” Cinema 7, no. 1 (1971): 8‑13.
4. “The Screen: Ancienne Vague,” Commonweal 94, no. 3 (1971): 64‑65.
3. “Techniques of Trickery,” Commonweal 93, no. 15 (1971): 375‑376.
2. “Revolution and Melodrama,” Cinema 6, no. 1 (1970): 42-47.
1. “A Report on Kenya,” Transition 7, no. 36 (1968): 22‑25.
74. “Let’s Start at the Beginning,” a lecture in the series, “The Unknown Known: Uncertainty and the Moving Image,” Tel Aviv University, Israel, May 10, 2021.
73. “Chris Marker’s Möbius Strip,” 18th International Documentary Conference, Sao Paolo, Brazil, April 8, 2021.
72. “Non-Fiction as a Narrative Form,” three-day master seminar at the University of Grenada, Spain, Sept 14-16, 2020.
71. “Master Classes on Documentary Form” weeklong seminar for DocNomad Graduate Program, Budapest, Hungary, March 4-8. 2019.
70. “In the Beginning,” Master Class, Family Film Project, Porto, Portugal, Oct 17, 2018.
69. “Grizzly Man and Ecstatic Truth,” Master Class, Astra Film Festivals, Sibiu, Romania, Oct 19, 2017.
68. “Pedagogy and The Evolving Face of Media,” Transmedia Studies Graduate Program, Carlos III University de Madrid, Spain, Oct 10, 2017.
67. “How to Make History Repeat Itself: Documentary Fictions (Un)like Any Other,” Media Studies Dept, Carlos III University de Madrid, Spain, Oct 10, 2017.
66. “Problems and Opportunities in Documentary,” master class, DocNomad Graduate Program, University of Theater and Film, Budapest, Hungary, April 3-7, 2017.
65. “The Fantasmatic and the Documentary,” International Conference on Reenactment, Zurich, Switzerland, May 18-20, 2016.
64. “Modes and Models,” a weeklong master class for the DocNomad Graduate Program at the University of Theater and Film, Budapest, Hungary, April 3-8, 2016.
63. Host, Master Class with Errol Morris, IDFA, Amsterdam, Nov 20, 2015.
62. “Conversation with Tom Fassaert,” on A Family Affair, IDFA, Amsterdam, Nov. 19, 2015.
61. “Explorations of Form,” a weeklong master class at University of Drama and Film Arts for the DocNomad Graduate Program, Budapest, Hungary, March 30-April 3, 2015.
60. “Where is Documentary Headed?” Industry Talk, IDFA, Amsterdam, Nov 26, 2014.
59. “Conversation with Laurent Bécue-Renard,” on Of Men and War, IDFA, Amsterdam, Nov. 24, 2014.
58. “Issues in Documentary,” a weeklong master class for DocNomads Graduate Program at University of Drama and Film Arts, Budapest, Hungary, April 1-4, 2014.
57. “Mockumentary, Irony and the Question of Truth,” Documentary Truth conference, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Feb 23, 2014.
56. “The Ironic Text: Beyond the Mockumentary,” Keynote Address, Visible Evidence, Stockholm, Sweden, August 15, 2013.
55. “This Is Not a Documentary,” Three lectures on Irony and Documentary Film at the Central European University, Budapest, Hungary, June 25-27, 2013; part of a two-week workshop for professors and filmmakers.
54. “The Question of Encounter,” Public Lecture sponsored by the Centro de Estudos Avançados, University of Campinas, Brazil, Nov 29, 2012
53. “To See the World Anew: The Modern Voice of Documentary,” Public Lecture sponsored by the Centro de Estudos Avançados, University of Campinas, Brazil, Nov 29, 2012.
52. “Documentary and the Coming of Sound,” Universidade Federal do Recôncavo da Bahia, Cachoeira, Brazil, Nov. 24, 2012.
51. “Documentary and the Coming of Sound,” Keynote Address for an International Seminar on “Ouvir o Documentário” (“Listen: The Sound of Documentary”), University of Bahia, Salvador, Brazil, Nov 23, 2012 and Cachoeira
50. “Dialogues with Peter Forgács,” Two hour dialogues held in conjunction with a major retrospective of Peter Forgács films, February 10-16, 2012, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paolo and Brasilia, Brazil.
49. “Encounters with Ethnography,” Imagens e Narrativas (Narrative and Images) International Conference, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, November 24, 2011.
48. “The Question of Ethics,” Master Class, Bordocs Film Festival, Tijuana, Mexico, September 3, 2011.
47. “New Voices and Old Forms: Documentary and New Technology,” EIDF International Documentary Conference, Seoul, Korea, August 22, 2011.
46. “1960: The Year the Voice of Documentary Changed,” Media and Culture Dept., University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Nov. 26, 2010.
45. “Compilation, Collage and Mash-Ups: Jay Leyda’s Films Beget Films, It’s All True Film Conference, Sao Paolo, Brazil, April 16, 2010.
44. “Writing Theoretically About Film,” Professional Writing Workshop, Jihlava Film Festival, Oct. 29, 2009.
43. “When Documentaries Learned to Listen,” Brno University, Brno, The Czech Republic, Oct 26, 2009.
42. “Documentaries Learn to Speak,” and “Documentary Reenactment,” a Lecture Series, Cultura Inglesa Foundation, Sao Paolo, Brazil, May 12-13, 2009.
41. “This Time We’ll Get It Right: Reenacting in Documentary,” Joris Ivens Conference, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China, Nov 18-20, 2008.
40. “The Question of Ethics,” Keynote Address, Just Images Conference, Tel Aviv University, Israel, June 3-5, 2008.
39. “Reenactment and Documentary Fiction,” Keynote Address, Nordic Anthropological Film Association, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway, June 14-16, 2007.
38. “Documentary and Beyond,” a Seminar for Doctoral candidates in Finland, Tampere University, Finland, March 2-3, 2004.
37. “The Question of Evidence,” Dept of Journalism and Mass Communication, Tampere University, Finland, March 1, 2004.
36. “Temporality, Trauma and the Image,” 2nd Annual Documentary Film Conference, Sao Paolo, Brazil, April 21, 2002.
35. “Peter Forgacs’ Saga of Family Life and Social Hell,” Suchbilder: Steps toward a Visual Archive of Cinematographic Topoi” Conference, Berlin, Germany, February 6-8, 2001.
34. “Representation and Rhetoric,” Graduate Humanities Colloquium, Utrecht University, The Netherlands, December 4, 1998.
33. “Documentary and the Turn from Modernism,” Keynote Address, The Documentary Context, Europese Stichting Joris Ivens, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, December 1, 1998.
32. “Power and the Documentary Image,” Graduate seminar, University of Tampere, Finland; Institute of Social Sciences Summer School, August, 1997.
31. “Dislocating Ethnography: The Traffic in African Art and the Principles of Ethnographic Film,” University of Oslo, Dept. of Anthropology, Dec. 4, 1996.
30. “Ethics and Camera Style,” Institute for Drama, Film and Theater, Trondheim University and Department of Film, University of Oslo, Dec. 2 and 4, 1996.
29. “Style and Film,” Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, Oct. 14, 1994.
28. “Revising the Past: Documentary, Narrative and Eisenstein,” Institute for Film, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, Oct. 13, 1994.
27. “Constructing Historical Consciousness: Collage and Meaning,” Odense and Rodilske Universities, Denmark, Oct. 11, 12, 1994.
26. “Managing Complexity,” Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, February 16, 1994.
25. “Documentary Ethics,” Tage des Unabhängigen Films Film Festival, Augsburg, Germany, March 25, 1993.
24. “About Face: Self-Representation and Performative Documentary,” Indigenous Media: Images/Identities/Politics, Conference, McGill University, Montreal, Oct. 23-24, 1992.
23. “E.T.: The Ethnographer’s Tale,” Nordic Anthropological Film Conference, Oslo, Norway, May 21‑24, 1991.
22. “Why We (men) Fight: TV’s Gulf War,” Video screening and panel participant, Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, Yamagata, Japan, Oct. 10, 1991.
21. “Subjectivity, Reflexivity and Documentary Film,” 13th Norwegian Short Film Festival, Grimstad, Norway, June 14, 1990.
20. “Documentary: A Fiction (Un)Like Any Other,” Curated a series of film programs and delivered Introductory Lectures for the Humanities Research Centre, Canberra, Australia, June 30-July 2, 1989.
19. “The Most Important Art (of Documentary),” Conference of Soviet-American Film Scholars, Moscow, Nov. 5, 1989.
18. “Art, Politics and the New Documentary,” DEC and A Space, Toronto, May 31, 1987.
17. Keynote Address, “Cybernetic Culture,” Pan-Nordic Film Conference, Turku, Finland, August 13, 1987. (The first conference to bring together media scholars from Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland.)
16. “Pleasure, Power and the Cybernetic Machine,” Canadian Communication Association, Montreal, May 20, 1987.
15. “The Personal and the Political in Recent Chinese Cinema,”
–Study Group in National and International Development, Queen’s University, February 26, 1987.
–Society for Cinema Studies, Montreal, May 22, 1987.
14. “Pornography, Ethnography and the Body,” Concordia University, Loyola Campus, Montreal, February 4, 1987.
13. “Hitchcock: Problems of Interpretation,” China Film Association, Beijing, China. A series of lectures over a two-week period (June 23‑July 6, 1986) on contemporary critical methodology and film theory for Chinese film makers, critics, and researchers. Sponsored by the China Film Association and the China Import/Export Corporation.
–Portions of the Lectures translated and printed in World Cinema (December 1986), Beijing, China.
12. “Documentary Strategies: Forms to Formulate the Real,” Cinema Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa, November 1, 1985.
11. “New Information Technologies and Higher Education,” Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, Montreal, March 7, 1984 (Presentation at the annual meeting of college and university Presidents in Canada).
10. “The Search for Tomorrow and the Future of the University,” Last Lecture Series, sponsored by the Queen’s University Undergraduate Society, March 14, 1984.
9. Keynote Presentation, “Vicarious Experience and Electronic Communication,” Conference on “Semiotics of the Cinema: State of the Art,” at Fifth International Summer Institute for Semiotic and Structural Studies, Victoria College, University of Toronto, June 20, 1984.
8. “Realism and the Representation of Reality: The Documentary Image,” Philosophy Department Colloquium, Queen’s University, January 20, 1983.
7. “Contending with the Media,” Conference on Human Rights and Social Responsibility, Kingston, January 30, 1983.
6. “The Image as Evidence: Ethnography and Film,” Toronto Semiotics Circle, University College, Toronto, April 28, 1983.
5. “Leisure, Cultural Forms, and the Representation of Women,” as Respondent at Conference on Gender, Leisure and Cultural Production, Queen’s University, October 1, 1983.
4. “New Information Technologies and the University,” Microelectronics, Information Technology and Canadian Society Conference, Kingston, May 7, 1982.
3. “The Nature of Art and the Limits of Logic,” University of Stockholm and the Swedish Film Institute, Stockholm, June 3, 1981.
2. “Cinematic Reflexivity,” Ethnographic Film Conference, Canberra, Australia, May 12‑19, 1978.
1. “Perception, Ideology and Art,” School of Humanities, Griffith University, Australia, April 20, 1978.
86. “In the Beginning,” Visible Evidence Conference, USC, Los Angeles, July 26, 2019. Panel Chair: Documentary Theory: Ontology, Narratology, Aesthetics.
85. “At the Starting Line,” revised version of paper delivered in Porto, Portugal, 2018, Film and Media Studies and Cultural Studies, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, April 4, 2019.
84. “Documentary Film Theory, Then and Now,” Media Studies, Brigham Young University, Dec. 2. 2016.
83. “Could You Repeat That? Reenactments and Historical Truth,” Media Studies, Brigham Young University, Dec. 2, 2016.
82. “Investigating the Work of Trinh Minh-ha,” Dept. of Critical Media Practices, Colorado University, Boulder, September 23, 2016.
81. “Documentary Ethics in the Digital Age,” a Keynote dialogue with Brian Winston, Visible Evidence Conference, Bozeman, MT, August 13, 2016.
80. “New Narratives/Old Films: A Conversation with Péter Forgács and Bill Nichols,” YIVO and City Museum of New York, November 4, 2014.
79. “Pigs, Parks, Protest,” Pacific Film Archive, screening and discussion of films by Newsreel, Berkeley, September 23, 2014.
78. “Advocacy and the Humanities,” California Humanities Council, for new documentary filmmaking grants recipients, San Francisco, July 29, 2014.
77. “The Films of Peter Forgács,” Conversations with the Filmmaker, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, Oct. 17-18, 2013.
76. “The Humanities and the Filmmaker,” California Humanities Documentary Film Project conference, San Francisco, June 13, 2012.
75. Host and Interviewer, Albert Maysles Life Achievement Award for Les Blank, Mendocino Film Festival, June 4, 2011.
74. “Categories and Creativity,” presentation for ITVS (Independent Television Service), San Francisco, May 13, 2011.
73. Host, Salon, “Social Justice Documentaries,” San Francisco International Film Festival, April 25, 2011.
72. Host and Interviewer, Albert Maysles Life Achievement Award for Haskell Wexler, Mendocino Film Festival, June 5, 2010.
71. Keynote Address, “Breaking Disciplinary Barriers,” SFSU Graduate Film Conference, Oct. 15, 2009.
70. “Reenactments: The Typical, the Historical and the Not So Typical” The Kodak Lecture, Ryerson University, Oct. 3, 2008.
69. “Freud, Marx, and the American Cinema,” Lecture to Visiting Professors from Germany on a Fulbright sponsored trip to the United States, San Francisco, September 24, 2008.
68. “Doing the Right Thing: Ethics and Documentary,” Archival Storytelling Conference, School of Journalism, UC Berkeley, October 25, 2007.
67. “Orators, Fantasy and the Ecstatic Documentary,” The New Documentary Impulse Conference, Humanities Institute, Scripps College, November 17-18, 2005.
66. “Standing Before the Subject: Documentary as Embodied Speech,” Truth in Motion Conference, Human Rights Program, University of Chicago, November 11-12, 2005.
65. “Mining Memory,” a colloquium on the work of Peter Forgács with Bill Nichols and Michael Roth. Judah L. Magnes Museum, October 30, 2005.
64. “Evidence, Fantasy and the Aftermath: Rethinking 9/11,” Berkeley Film Seminar, University of California Berkeley, March 18, 2005.
63. “Italian Cinema,” Introductions to I Soliti Ignoti and Il Bell’ Antonio, Dante Alighieri Society of Santa Cruz, April 20, May 18, 2003.
62. “Framing 9/11 as Narrative and Fantasy,” Post-Ritual: Event, Performance, Art Conference, University of California Santa Cruz, January 4-5, 2003.
61. “Persuasion and Film,” Yaffe Center for Persuasive Communications, University of Michigan School of Business, November 15, 2002.
60. “The Terrorist Event,” The “Human Communication Lecture,” Indiana University, Dept of Communication and Culture, November 14, 2002.
59. “Malevich, Rodchenko, Eisenstein and Vertov: An Imaginary Dialogue,” Pacific Film Archive, November 3, 2002. As part of “Garbage and Kissing: Kazimir Malevich and the Cinema,” a film and lecture series.
58. “The Memory of Loss,” Constructing Cultures Lecture Series, Visual and Cultural Studies Program, University of Rochester, February 27, 2002.
57. “The Films of Péter Forgács,” Skirball Cultural Center, April 21, 2001, Los Angeles.
56. “Documentary and Modernism,” San Francisco Cinematheque, March 15, 2001. Presented and curated a program of ten films.
55. “The Modernist Avant-Garde and the Turn to Documentary,” in conjunction with the exhibition, “The Geography of Modern Life: Documentary and Avant-Garde Films between the World Wars,” San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, May 12, 2000.
54. “Discipline, Medium, Art,” Art History and Film Workshop, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, April 24, 2000.
53. “Documentary Film and Modernism,” The Construction of Historical Meaning Lecture Series, Getty Research Institute, Nov. 30, 1999.
52. “Film Practice and Film Theory: An Integrated Approach,” Film Studies Dept., Queen’s University, Oct. 23, 1999.
51. “Visual Anthropology v an Anthropology of the Visual,” Whither Visual Culture? Conference, UC Santa Cruz, February 26, 1999.
50. “The Context for Contempt,” Panel Respondent for “Godard’s Contempt: Before and After,” David Cast, Chair, College Art Association, Feb. 12, 1999, Los Angeles, Ca.
49. “Filming Memories/Making History: A Colloquim with UCLA Faculty Filmmakers on Historical Representation,” UCLA, May 15, 1998.
48. “Visual Culture, Representation, Rhetoric,” Dept. of Film and Television, UCLA, Nov. 14, 1997.
47. Film Theory and the Revolt Against Master Narratives,” Division of Critical Studies, School of Cinema and Television, USC., Los Angeles, Oct. 17, 1997.
46. “Closing Remarks,” Foreign Bodies Symposium, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, April 19, 1997.
45. “Trafficking African Art as Commodity and Fetish,” Department of Communication and Theater, University of Notre Dame, February 27, 1977.
44. “Just Deliberations,” Picturing Justice: Images of Law and Lawyers in the Visual Media Conference, New York University Law School and University of San Francisco Law School, San Francisco, March 23, 1996.
43. “The Pursuit of Knowledge and the (Ab)Uses of Power,” College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences, Cal State Polytechnic, Pomona, Ca., February 15, 1996.
42. “Style and the Ethnographer,” School of American Research, Seminar on “Visual Anthropology at the Crossroads,” Sante Fe, NM, May 7-12, 1995. Part of the Advanced Seminar Series which brings ten scholars together for the purpose of generating a book based on previously circulated articles.
41. “An Evening with Stan Douglas and Bill Nichols,” San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, part of the Museum’s inaugural exhibition, “Public Information: Desire, Disaster, Document,” March 16, 1995.
40. “Revitalizing the Past: Recent Fiction and Historical Awareness,” as Panelist, Sundance Film Festival, Park City, Utah, Jan. 23, 1995.
39. “Documentary in the 1960s,” 40th Anniversary Retrospective Program, Flaherty Seminars, Wells College, NY, Aug. 10, 1994.
38. “Style and Ethnography,” Visual Anthropology Program, Dept. of Anthropology, University of Southern C00alifornia, April 15, 1994.
37. “Administrative Style and the Legalization of University Relations,” College of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of California Riverside, March 24, 1994.
36. “Strike: Dialectics Refigured,” Fourth Berkeley Film Conference, University of California Berkeley, Nov. 6, 1993.
35. “The Remains of the Referent,” Visible Evidence Conference, Duke University, Durham, Sept. 9-12, 1993.
34. “Rodney King and the End of Reality (TV),” Center for Cultural Studies, UC Santa Cruz, March 10, 1993.
33. “Films of Austerity: New Iranian Cinema,” East-West Center Conference on Globalism and Hawaii International Film Festival, Honolulu, Dec 3, 1992.
32. “Sexual Politics and National Liberation: Films from Vietnam,” Asian Cinema Conference, NYU, New York, June 11-14, 1992.
–Also given as a lecture for Comparative Area Studies and the Program in Film and Video, Duke University, Nov. 14, 1992.
31. 1992 Earl Wynn Memorial Lecture: “Representation: Suspended (Beyond Ethnography),” Department of Radio, Television and Motion Pictures, UNC, Chapel Hill, NC, April 23, 1992.
30. “Strike: Performative Dialectics,” History as Fiction, Film as Truth, a Scholars Workshop at UCLA Film and Television Archive, Los Angeles, April 4, 1992.
29. “Do We Say What We Mean: Pedagogy and the Arts,” School of Theater, Television and Film, UCLA, January 9, 1992.
28. “Maps to an Imaginary Place: Films on Tibet,” Panelist at Asian Art Museum, in conjunction with the exhibition, “The Wisdom and Compassion of Tibet,” San Francisco, August 3, 1991.
27. “Assumed Authority: Point of View in Documentary,” Panelist at National Education Film and Video Festival, May 19, 1991.
26. “TV’s Gulf War,” special public presentation as a Juror at the Humbolt Film Festival, Minor Theater, Arcata, Ca. April 7, 1991.
25. “Locating the Body in Documentary,” for a graduate seminar co-sponsored by the School of Cinema and the Visual Anthropology Program at University of Southern California, Nov. 16, 1990.
24. “Documentary Desire,” public lecture, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, February 8, 1990.
23. “Documentary Dilemmas: Theorizing the Untheorized,” for an interdisciplinary graduate seminar on “Current Issues in Film Theory,” Modern Thought and Literature, Stanford University, April 19, 1989.
22. “Male Subjectivity: The Late Adolescent Son as a Utopian Figure,” Hawaii International Film Festival and Conference,” November 28, 1988.
21. “Learning from the Past,” UCLA Film Archives, “In Celebration of Newsreel,” a conference on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of Newsreel’s founding, February 6, 1988.
20. “Film, Media, and Communication Studies,” Society for Cinema Studies Conference, New York University, October 19, 1985.
19. “Cinema, Ideology and the Blacklist,” The second annual, all day seminar presented to University of Southern California faculty and graduate students in the School of Cinema, March 8, 1985.
18. “Culture and Computers,” Public Lecture, University of Southern California, March 7, 1985.
17. Keynote Presentation, “Ferment in the Field,” at the Conference on the Future of Film Studies, U.N.C., Chapel Hill, North Carolina, October 12, 1984.
16. “The Work of Culture in the Age of Electronic Communication,”
Spring Quarter Lecture, History of Consciousness Program, U.C. Santa Cruz, May 9, 1984.
-‑Study group on New Information Technologies, Queen’s University, Nov. 15, 1984.
-‑Annenberg Conference on Visual Communication, June 1985.
–As Keynote Address for the annual conference of L’Association Quebecoise des Etudes Cinematographiques, Montreal, Nov. 3, 1985
15. “A Re‑examination of Film Study in the Light of Cultural Study,” Department of Communications, U.C. San Diego, February 12, 1984.
14. “Aesthetic Experience, Vicarious Experience and a Fine Arts Education,” Porter College Fellows, U.C. Santa Cruz, June 1, 1983.
13. “Contextualizing Pixote: Marginality and Melodrama,” with Julianne Burton, Gays and Lesbians in the Cinema Conference, UCLA, January 28, 1983.
12. “The Documentary Form and Political Praxis,” UC Berkeley, February 1981.
11. “The General and the Specific: Recent Film Theory,” San Francisco State University, October, 1980.
10. “Towards a Post‑War American Film History,” Invitational Conference on Film History, University of Southern Illinois, Carbondale, November 16, 1980.
9. “Myth, Paradox and Culture,” National Defense College of Canada, Kingston, April 8, 1980.
8. “Ethnography, Documentary and Film Criticism,” Media Study Center, SUNY at Buffalo, March 27‑29, 1980.
7. “Approaches to Ethnographic Film,” Media Study Center, SUNY at Buffalo, April 24, 1979 as part of a Lecture Series on Film Theory and Practice.
6. “Crises in Modern Film Theory,” University of New South Wales, June 1978.
5. “American film noir as a Political Movement,” Film Studies, U.C. Santa Cruz, August, 1978.
4. “Film Pedagogy,” University of Toronto, April 1977.
3. “Newsreel and the Political Documentary,” Concordia University, October, 1977.
2. “Fred Wiseman’s Documentaries: Realism, Narrative and Non‑Fiction,” McGill University, March 1976.
1. “Newsreel Retrospective,” Film Forum, Toronto, January 12, 1976.
29. “Defining Documentary in the Festival Circuit: A Conversation with Bill Nichols,” Aida Vallejo, Documentary Film Festivals, vol.1 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020).
28. “A Dialogue with John Caldwell,” discussion of his film, Land Hacks: Masculine Media Anxiety Disorder, Visible Evidence, USC, Los Angeles, CA. July 28, 2019.
27. “Perversities in the Cinema: An Overview,” on panel, “Perversion, Transgression and the Cinema,” Society for Cinema and Media Study, Seattle, WA, March 23, 2014.
26. “Reenacting the Impossible,” on the work of Dennis Tupicoff as Respondent to panel presentations at Society for Cinema and Media Study, Boston, March 22, 2012.
25. “Feelings of Revulsion and the Limits of Academic Discourse: on Standard Operating Procedure,” Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Los Angeles, March 20, 2010.
24. “Performing the Past/Reforming the Present,” Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Chicago, March 10. 2007.
23. “Documentary Abjection,” Respondent, “Documentary and the Abject” Panel, Society for Cinema and Media Studies, March 8, 2007.
22. “Documentary Film History As Myth,” Visible Evidence Conference, Utrecht, the Netherlands, August 17, 2000.
21. “Film and the Uses of Rhetoric,” Society for Cinema Studies, San Diego, CA, April 4, 1998.
20. “Dislocating Culture: In and Out of Africa and the Traffic in Art,” Society for Cinema Studies, Dallas, Texas, March 7, 1996.
19. “Please, All You Good and Honest People,” History and Film Panel, Society for Cinema Studies Conference, New Orleans, Feb. 12, 1993.
18. “Rodney King and the LAPD: Guilt and Innocence,” Workshop on the Rodney King videotape, Society for Cinema Studies Conference, New Orleans, Feb. 12, 1993.
17. “How the West Sees the East,” Public Forum at the Hawaii International Film Festival, Honolulu, Dec. 4, 1992.
16. “Dennis O’Rourke’s The Good Woman of Bangkok, discussion of this documentary on The Morning Edition, National Public Radio, Spring, 1992.
15. “Jiri Menzel,” Profile of Jiri Menzel on The Morning Edition, National Public Radio, May 18, 1990.
14. “Ethnographic Issues in Cross‑cultural Media Making,” Society for Cinema Study workshop, Montreal, May 23, 1987.
13. “The Work of Culture in the Age of the Simulacrum,” Society for Cinema Studies, New York University, June 15, 1985.
12. “Let a Hundred Voices Blossom: Complex Form in Documentary,” Society for Cinema Studies, Pittsburgh, Pa., May 3, 1983.
11. “New Information Technology and Its Impact on Film Education,” Film Studies Association of Canada, Vancouver, June 4, 1982.
10. “Film Studies in the Liberal Arts Curriculum,” Modern Language Association, New York, December 29, 1981.
9. “Film Production, Film Criticism and Canadian Film Culture,” Film Studies Association of Canada, Oakville, Ontario, June 1‑4, 1980.
8. “Film and the Liberal Arts: Problems of Pedagogy,” Film Studies Association of Canada, Kingston, Ontario, May 17, 1979.
7. “Integrating Film Theory and Practice in an Undergraduate Curriculum,” Society for Cinema Studies, San Franscico, March 22, 1979.
6. “The Perception of Apparent Movement in Film,” Conference on Technology and Ideology in the Cinema, Center for 20th Century Studies, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, February 24‑27, 1978.
5. “Frederick Wiseman and Documentary Film Theory,” Film Studies Association of Canada, McGill University, May 17‑20, 1970.
4. “Visual Style in Blonde Venus,” Society for Cinema Studies, Northwestern University, March 24‑27, 1977.
3. “Toward a Theory of Documentary Film,” Film Studies Association of Canada, Laval University, Quebec, May 25, 1976.
2. “Narrative Film Theory,” Society for Cinema Studies, New York University, April 2‑4, 1975.
1. “The Political Documentary,” Conference on Film Study, Oberlin College, April 20, 1972.
EDITORIAL ACTIVITY:
Editorial Peer Reviewer, Screen magazine and European Journal of Media Studies, 2013- 2018.
Editorial Board, Studies in Documentary Film, 2013 – 2018.
Board of Advisors, Film Quarterly, 2013- 2019. Contributing Editor, Film Quarterly, 2010- 2012.
Editorial Consultant, Art Journal, 2003-05.
Editorial Advisory Board, Canadian Journal of Film Studies, 1999-2009.
Editorial Board, Explorations in Visual Anthropology book series, Gordon and Breach Scientific Publishers, Paul Stoller, Series Editor, 1993-96.
Editorial Advisor, Literature and Medicine, 1996-99.
Editorial Consultant, Visual Anthropology Review, 1992-98.
Editorial Board, Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 1988‑1992.
Editorial Board, Cinema Journal, 1983‑1993.
Advisory Editor, Quarterly Review of Film and Video Studies, 1987‑96 (ceased publication).
Advisory Editor, Cine‑Tracts, 1976‑1982 (ceased publication).
Associate Editor, Women & Film, 1972‑1975 (ceased publication).
Editorial Advisor: Blackwell, Columbia University Press, Indiana University Press, Methuen Publishers, Routledge (N.Y.), MacMillan Press (U.K.), Oxford University Press, Penn State Press, Southern Illinois Press, Temple University Press, University of California Press, Duke University Press, Palgrave Press, University of Iowa Press, University of Kansas, University of Michigan Press, University of Minnesota Press, Princeton University Press, University of Wisconsin Press, University of Illinois Press, Wesleyan University Press.
REPORTS:
“Foreword: Film Studies,” The AFI Guide to College Courses in Film and Television (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990). A brief sketch of the academic traditions and career opportunities in film for prospective students.
“American Film Institute White Paper on Education,” June 1984. A long-term strategy for a national education program at the AFI. Subsequently published in Cinema Journal 24, no. 4 (1985): 59‑71.
“Report from the President,” Cinema Journal 23, nos. 1, 2 and 3 (1984). Reports to members of the Society for Cinema Studies on activities and issues of general concern during my term as President.
Report of the Dean’s Committee on New Information Technology (Queen’s University, 1982). Committee Chairperson and Principal Author. A survey of the applications and implications of new information technologies for the University’s Faculty of Arts and Science with recommendations for policy decisions.
“Background Report on New Information Technologies and the University” (Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, 1984). Prepared for the General Meeting of University Presidents, Montreal, March 7‑8, 1984. Printed simultaneously in French, “Texte d’appoint sur l’universite et nouvelles technologies de l’information.”
REVIEWS:
billnichols.net [a blog with reviews and commentary on films, art and other topics], 2012 – present.
Waltzing with Bashir: Perpetrator Cinema and Trauma, Studies in Documentary Film, 8, no. 1 (March 2014), pp. 81-85.
“Kabul Transit,” American Anthropologist, 112, no. 1 (March 2010):
Projecting Canada: Government Policy and Documentary Film at the National Film Board, The Public Historian, 31, no. 1 (February 2009): 137-139.
Realer Than Reel, The Public Historian (2007):
Documenting Ourselves, Film Quarterly (1999).
Appropriating Images: the Semiotics of Visual Representation, Semiotica, 123, no. 3-4, (1998): 377-79.
Unthinking Eurocentrism, Film Quarterly, 49, no. 3, (Spring 1996): 59-61.
Anthropological Filmmaking, Film Quarterly, 45, no. 3 (Spring 1992): 62-63.
A Cinema of Nonfiction, Film Quarterly, 45, no. 2 (1991-92): 60-61.
Cinema and History and Screening the Holocaust, in San Francisco Review of Books XIII, no. 3 (Winter 1988‑89): 41‑43.
Writing Culture and Myth, Race and Power, Film Quarterly 41, no. 3 (Spring 1988): 56‑57.
Concepts in Film Theory and Film in the Aura of Art, Film Quarterly 39, no. 2 (Winter 1985: 56‑61.
Film on the Left, Canadian Review of American Studies 16, no. 2 (Summer 1985): 231‑235.
Studying Visual Communication, Film Quarterly 37, no. 1 (Fall 1983).
“Henderson on Film Theory: Another Look,” Quarterly Review of Film Studies 8, no. 1 (Winter 1983): 75‑76.
Toward a Structural Psychology of Cinema and Pictorial Signs and the Language of Film, Film Quarterly 35, no. 4 (1982): 43‑44.
The Social Problem Film, Quarterly Review of Film Study 7, no. 2 (Spring 1982): 181‑183.
Four Families, American Anthropologist 83, no. 3 (September 1981): 733-34.
The Hunters, American Anthropologist 82, no. 1 (March 1980): 228‑29.
Creative Differences and Movies as Social Criticism, Film Quarterly 33, no. 4 (1980): 27‑29.
André Bazin, Cinetracts, no. 7‑8 (1980).
The Spoken Seen, Queen’s Quarterly 84, no. 3 (1977): 501‑02.
Rage, Film Quarterly 26, no. 4 (1973): 41‑43.
Sam Fuller, Film Quarterly 25, no. 4 (1972): 34‑35.
Godard’s Struggle in Italy, Film Quarterly 25, no. 1 (1972): 56‑57.
Michael Verhoeven’s O.K., Cineaste 4, no. 2 (1970): 33-35.
Miscellaneous Film Reviews: The Staff, a Los Angeles newspaper, 1969-1972.
Miscellaneous Film Reviews: KMET-FM radio, Los Angeles, 1971‑1972.
Miscellaneous Film Reviews: L.A., a Los Angeles newspaper, 1970‑1973.
PANEL CHAIR OR MODERATOR:
Chair, “Documentary Theory: Ontology, Narratology, Aesthetics,” Visible Evidence conference, July 26, 2019, USC, Los Angeles, CA.
Chair, “Perversion, Transgression and the Cinema,” Society for Cinema and Media Studies, March 21, 2014, Seattle, WA.
Chair, “The Documentary Interview,” Visible Evidence XVI, USC, August 13, 2009.
Moderator, International Flaherty Seminar, Discussion with filmmakers Leandro Katz, Angela Ricci Lucchi and Yvervant Gianikian, Claremont Colleges, Claremont, CA, June 12, 2005.
Commentator and panelist, 34th International Short Film Festival, Tampere, Finland, March 5-7, 2004.
Faculty Coordinator and Panel Chair, “Global Conflicts/Local Responsibilities,” Conference organized by the Visual and Cultural Studies Graduate Program on the events of September 11, Rochester, NY, March 1-2, 2002.
Chair, “Revising the Record” panel, Visible Evidence VIII, Utrecht, the Netherlands, August 17, 2000.
Moderator and Panel Organizer, “Historical Representation and Documentary Filmmaking,” Visible Evidence VI, San Francisco, August 14, 1998. A dialogue with Jon Else, Connie Fields, Pat Ferrero, and Emiko Omori.
Chair, “Rhetoric, Representation, Power” panel, Society for Cinema Studies, San Diego, CA, April 4, 1998.
Moderator and Conference Co-Organizer, “(Trans)figuring the Works of Maya Deren: Ideological Meshes and the Avant-Garde Subject,” San Francisco State University, April 17, 1996.
Chair, “Nonfiction, Experience and Knowledge,” panel, 2nd Annual Visible Evidence Conference, University of Southern California, August 18-22, 1994.
Chair, “Nonfiction Film Theory” panel, Visible Evidence: Strategies and Practices in Documentary Film and Video Conference, Duke University, Sept. 9-12, 1993.
Chair, “Popular and High Culture,” Postcommunism: Rethinking the Second World conference, Center for Cultural Studies, UCSC, March 7, 1993.
Chair, Society for Cinema Studies, “Issues in Cross-Cultural Representation,” U.S.C., May 25, 1991.
Chair, Society for Cinema Studies, “Technology and Spectatorship,” Washington, D.C., May 26, 1990.
Chair and Commentator, Joint Plenary Session, Society for Cinema Studies, Film Studies Association of Canada, and L’Association Quebecoise des Etudes Cinematagraphiques: “The Future of the Image: Preservation, Copyright, Access,” Montreal, May 23, 1987.
Moderator, A Discussion with Donald Brittain and Frederick Wiseman, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, May 7, 1987.
Chair, Panel on Cybernetics and Postmodernism, Society for Cinema Studies Annual Conference, New York University, June 13, 1985.
Panel Chair, “Introduction to Studies in Postwar American Culture,” at Ohio University Film Conference, Athens, Ohio, Oct. 26, 1984.
Moderator and Chair, Closing Plenary Session of the Society for Cinema Studies Annual Conference, “The Place of Television in the Film Studies Curriculum,” Madison, Wisconsin, March 31, 1984.
Moderator, Workshop Session on “Job Opportunities and Employment Strategies in Film Studies,” Society for Cinema Studies, Madison, Wisconsin, March 30, 1984.
Panel Chairman, “Recent International Cinema,” Society for Cinema Studies, Los Angeles, July 2, 1982.
FILMMAKING ACTIVITY:
Producer/Director: Why We (men) Fight: TV’s Gulf War (3/4″ video, 28 min. color and b/w, documentary, 1991). Distributed by Paper Tiger TV.
Producer/Director: Ideology and the Image: The Movie (16mm, 15 min. col., didactic fiction, 1987).
Co‑Producer and co‑writer: The AFI Goes to the Movies
(KTTV‑TV, 30 min. A “behind the scenes” discussion following the screening of Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice, September 9, 1985, Los Angeles.) This was a pilot program for a projected PBS series, “The Art of the Cinema” undertaken as part of my activity as Consultant for a national education program.
Producer/Director: The Cinematic Peephole (16mm, 12 min., b/w, didactic fiction, 1981).
Producer/Director: My Profession (16mm, 10 min., col., didactic fiction, 1980).
Executive Producer:
The Box and I (for Rehabilitation Therapy, Kingston General Hospital, 16mm, 25 min., col., 1978).
Queen’s Colours (Faculty of Arts and Science, Queen’s University, 16mm, 20 min., col., 1976).
Limestone (Queen’s Alumni, 16mm, 5 min., col., 1976).
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS:
American Anthropological Association, 1993-1999
Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers, 1982‑2008
Canadian Studies Association, 1980‑1990
College Art Association, 1997-2002
Film Arts Foundation, 1987‑ 2008
Film Study Association of Canada, 1976‑1987
International Documentary Association, 1997- present
Modern Language Association, 1978‑1991
Society for Cinema and Media Studies, 1974‑ present
Society for the Anthropology of Visual Communication, 1977‑1999
Society for Visual Sociology, 1986-1998
Speech Communications Association, 1983‑91
University Film and Video Association, 1974‑1982, 1987-90
FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS and AWARDS:
Student Award for Excellence in Advising, San Francisco State University, 2004.
Honorable Mention, Society for Cinema Studies Katherine L. Kovacs Essay Award for “Documentary Film and the Modernist Avant-Garde,” Critical Inquiry, 27, 4 (2001), Spring 2002.
Excellent Teaching Award, General Education Program, San Francisco State University, 1999.
Favorite Professor Award, Student Alumni Council, UC Santa Cruz, 1991-92 and 1992-93.
Nominated for The Alumni Teaching Award, Queen’s University, 1985.
NEH Fellowship, 1990‑1991. To complete Representing Reality: Issues and Concepts in Social Documentary, subsequently published by Indiana University Press.
San Francisco State University Summer Stipend, 1989. For work on Representing Reality.
NEH Summer Stipend, 1988. For work on documentary film theory.
Principal’s Development Fund, Queen’s University, 1983, 1987. To develop video resources to support a series of research projects in collaboration with colleagues in Sociology and the Centre for Sport and Leisure Studies and to purchase laser video disc equipment and software in support of the introductory film course).
Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC): Research Grants (1982‑1985) for study on postwar American film and culture, 1945-1963. SSHRC provided three years of support for release time, travel, a research associate and part‑time assistants ($130,000).
Principal’s Development Fund, Queen’s University, 1982. Funding to develop a course in ethnographic film in collaboration with Professor David Neice, Department of Sociology. Included funds to begin a film library and to invite filmmaker David MacDougall from Australia for a four week period.
SSHRC, Resources Development Grant, 1982. To develop a computerized index to our Department Archive of National Film Board films. The Archive numbered over 1500 prints by 1987 when I left Queen’s. Coapplicant with Peter Morris, Film Studies.
Chancellor Richardson Memorial Fund, Queen’s University, 1976‑1983. Funds to purchase approximately 4‑6 films by Canadian filmmakers per year. Co‑applicant with Peter Morris, Film Studies.
SSHRC, Leave Fellowship and Research Grant (1980‑1981). For sabbatical leave support and research on paradox in narrative and documentary.
SSHRC, Research Grant, 1979‑80. For research assistance in the preparation of Ideology and the Image.
Queen’s University Advisory Research Council, 1975‑1976. Funds for the production of several thousand frame enlargements from feature films for teaching and research purposes.
SERVICE:
Editorial Board, Film Quarterly, 2013 – 2017.
Distinguished Career Achievement Award Committee, Society for Cinema and Media Studies, July 2009-June 2012; chairman, July 2012-June 2013.
Instructor, San Francisco Film Society, Proposing and Pitching a Documentary, July 15-17, 2011; “Story, Rhetoric, Poetics,” Foundation Course in Documentary. October 1-3, 2010; various other courses on Documentary, American Independent Cinema, Werner Herzog, and Errol Morris, 2009-2011.
Faculty Associate, Frederick Douglass Institute, University of Rochester, 2001-2002.
Faculty Associate, Susan B. Anthony Institute, University of Rochester, 2001-2002.
Dean’s Alumni Council, UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, 2000-.
Film Reviewer, KUSP-FM, a National Public Radio affiliate in Santa Cruz, California, 1990 ‑ 2001. Occasional commentator on National Public Radio, Morning Edition and on Australian Broadcasting, radio.
Panelist, Film Fund Review, National Foundation for Jewish Culture, 1998.
Peer Review panel member, National Services and Media Arts Centers Fund, National Endowment for the Arts, 1994.
Peer Review panel member, National Humanities Center, 1993-95.
Peer Review panel member, National Endowment for the Arts, National Media Services, 1988.
Peer Review panel member, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Coucil of Canada Award Committees for film and literature fellowships, 1979, 1982, 1985; Award Panel for dissertation research, 1981-83.
Juror, Humbolt Film Festival, Arcata, Ca., April 5‑8, 1991.
Jury Chair, Golden Gate Awards Panel for Historical Documentary, San Francisco International Film Festival, 1990, 1991.
Juror, San Francisco International Film Festival, “New Visions” category for the Golden Gate Awards.
Executive Committee, Film Study Association of Canada, 1978‑1980.
Program Chairman, Film Study Association of Canada, Annual Conference, 1979.
Nominating Committee member, Society for Cinema Studies, 1978‑1979, 1991-92.
[1] The Encyclopedia of International Film entry that discusses my work in the field of documentary film states, “To return to the opening judgment, Nichols is arguably the most significant documentary scholar in the world. Given his pioneering role in international academic inquiry, it is unlikely that this judgment will ever need revision” (vol. 2, p. 997).
Bill Nichols 