Palgrave-MacMillan released ‘The Geo-Doc – Geomedia, Documentary Film and Social Change’ by Dr. Mark Terry in February of 2020. The publisher states: “This book introduces a new form of documentary film: the Geo-Doc, designed to maximize the influential power of the documentary film as an agent of social change. By combining the proven methods and approaches as evidenced through historical, theoretical, digital, and ecocritical investigations with the unique affordances of Geographic Information System technology, a dynamic new documentary form emerges, one tested in the field with the United Nations. This book begins with an overview of the history of the documentary film with attention given to how it evolved as an instrument of social change. It examines theories surrounding mobilizing the documentary film as a communication tool between filmmakers and policymakers. Ecocinema and its semiotic storytelling techniques are also explored for their unique approaches in audience engagement. The proven methods identified throughout the book are combined with the spatial and temporal affordances provided by GIS technology to create the Geo-Doc, a new tool for the activist documentarian.”
“This book is a richly detailed study of the changing potentials of documentary filmmaking for contributing to social and policy changes. The combination of Mark Terry’s substantial professional experience and well-argued and researched scholarship makes for a rare and admirable synthesis.” (Adrian Ivakhiv, Professor of Environmental Studies, University of Vermont, USA)
“In The Geo-Doc, Mark Terry skilfully interweaves history, theory, and practice, both in the account he offers of the econcinematic evolution of the documentary and in his own film work. Through the interactive multilinear storytelling of Geo-docs, Terry argues, digital media can contribute to regional, national, and global efforts to address climate change. Climate change activists and communicators should pay heed.” (Michael Svoboda, Professor of Writing, George Washington University, USA, and book editor and film reviewer for Yale Climate Connections)
“I greatly admire the use of practical case studies to illustrate this new documentary format explored in this study. Especially in light of the growing importance of climate change and the urgent need to tease out the social changes facing our planet, documentary activists like Mark Terry, as evidenced in this volume, have a major role to play in this environmental communications struggle.” (Pat Brereton, Professor of Communication, Dublin City University, UK)
‘The Book Authority’ rates ‘The Geo-Doc’ as one of the 5 Best New Documentary Film eBooks To Read In 2020. On their page entitled ’47 Best Documentary Film eBooks of All Time’, they write: “This book introduces a new form of documentary film: the Geo-Doc, designed to maximize the influential power of the documentary film as an agent of social change. By combining the proven methods and approaches as evidenced through historical, theoretical, digital, and ecocritical investigations with the unique affordances of Geographic Information System technology, a dynamic new documentary form emerges, one tested in the field with the United Nations. This book begins with an overview of the history of the documentary film with attention given to how it evolved as an instrument of social change.
In Dr. Terry’s book, he talks about The Youth Climate Report, a project he created and maintains in conjunction with the UNEP, which is a temporal, locative, evolving new form of a documentary film which he pins 3-minute videos submitted by students from around the world that examine climate change and other environmental issues. Mark’s book explains how this data delivery system was adopted by the UNEP to inform policymakers of issues through the GIS map platform which houses videos, reports, photographs, metadata, location, and more.