Observational CinemaOnce hailed as a radical breakthrough in documentary and ethnographic filmmaking, observational cinema has been criticized for a supposedly detached camera that objectifies and dehumanizes the subjects of its gaze. Anna Grimshaw and Amanda Ravetz provide the first critical history and in depth appraisal of this movement, examining key works, filmmakers, and theorists, from Andr Bazin and the Italian neorealists, to American documentary films of the