This essay takes an autobiographical approach to discuss and analyse developments of the last thirty years in the aesthetics, content, and institutional and commercial realities of documentary film production in North America and the English-speaking world. Parts of Section 3 are adapted from an unpublished paper given at Visible Evidence in Brazil. Parts of Section 5 are adapted from a presentation given at the Concordia University President’s Conference on Surveillance and Security , which is unpublished but available as a web cast on the Concordia University site http://coms.concordia.ca/faculty/schwab.html .