ABSTRACT
This chapter is in two sections. In the first part, I outline some ideas about why history teachers might consider making documentary films with their pupils. Informing this section is a polemic suggesting that the traditional ‘apprentice’ model of history teaching, in which the history pupil is treated as a trainee historian, needs to be overhauled. In my view, pupils need to become informed, critical users of the range of ways in which the past is interpreted and presented, both academic and popular. The documentary history film is perhaps the most important example of popular presentation of the past and is now extensively used in the classroom and yet rarely used critically. Providing opportunities for the history pupil to make ‘historical’ film, will not only broaden their awareness of how the past is used (and abused) but also enhance their appreciation of the importance of history as an academic discipline.
