Some of us here at DOC recently read a book called A New History of Documentary Film , and we were privately embarrassed by how many gaps in our doc-knowledge were exposed over the course of reading it. (This does not, of course, include Chris Dortch, who apparently has no gaps in knowledge whatsoever.) Thankfully for everyone, those voids have now been filled. Anyway, the book is both deep and wide ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú covering everything from Robert Flaherty to Born into Brothels ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú and we feel it is fairly essential for anyone serious about docs. For the sake of full disclosure, it was co-authored by one of our advisory board members, Dr. Betsy McLane, who has no idea we have read her book nor that we are plugging it ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú which also means that, thankfully, she does not yet plan to test us on its content (Dr. McLane has taught docs at places like the University of Vermont and USC). So, to Betsy we say thank you for the education. To everyone else, start reading.