The Politics of Documentary BFI, 2007 (buy it here) ‘immensely readable… a thought-provoking perspective… a thoroughly enjoyable workout for the intellect’ Vertigo Magazine – read the full review “consistently asks probing questions about the turbulent intersections of nonfiction film, cultural … Continue reading
The Dream That Kicks : The Prehistory and Early Years of Cinema in Britain Routledge, Second Edition, 1996 ‘An extraordinary study of the cultural/ideological “site” of cinema at the moment of its birth.’ Encylclopaedia Britanica ‘It confronts – head on … Continue reading
Repeated Takes, A Short History of Recording and its effect on Music Verso, 1995 “Until the development of the radio and the gramophone, people only heard music when they played it themselves or when they heard other people playing it. … Continue reading
Musica Practica: The Social Practice of Western from Gregorian Chant to Postmodernism, Verso, 1996 The idea of writing a history of music spanning around 1,000 years might seem highly impractical, but Michael Chanan has attempted just that. He is not … Continue reading
‘Memories of Underdevelopment’ by T.G.Alea, (Michael Chanan, Ed.) Rutgers University Press, 1990 (Rutgers Films in Print) The book includes the script of the film, the novella by Edmundo Desnoes on which it is based, and a collection … Continue reading
From Handel to Hendrix, The Composer in the Public Sphere Verso, 1999 A study of the composer as a public figure in the light of Habermas’s study of the transformation of the public sphere, taking its cue from the German … Continue reading
Cuban Cinema University of Minnesota Press, 2004 This is the second edition of ‘The Cuban Image: Cinema and Cultural Politics in Cuba’ (BFI/Indiana University Press,1984) Read a review in Afterimage