"Framing the Nation: Documentary Film in Interwar France" argues that, between World Wars I and II, documentary film made a substantial contribution to the rewriting of the French national narrative to include rural France and the colonies. "Framing the Nation: Documentary Film in Interwar France" argues that, between World Wars I and II, documentary film made a substantial contribution to the rewriting of the French national narrative to include rural France and the colonies. The book mines a significant body of virtually unknown films and manuscripts for their insight into revisions of French national identity in the aftermath of the Great War. Before the Great War, the French regions and the colonies had been perceived as geographically and culturally distant. These regions had now proven themselves to be essential reservoirs of young fighting men, soldiers of whom the nation could be proud. The average French citizen began to realize that the nation was geographically and culturally diverse. In the aftermath of the war, government institutions sought to take advantage of this budding realization to advance social programs they believed were crucial to national regeneration. They turned to documentary film, a new form of mass communication, to do so. Traditional narratives of documentary film history point to the interwar years as a crucial moment at which documentary film came into its own as a genre in countries such as Great Britain, Germany, and the Soviet Union. France is not mentioned. Even scholars of French film state that the French made no significant contribution to documentary film prior to the Vichy period. Using until now overlooked films, "Framing the Nation" refutes this misconception and shows that the French were early and active believers in the uses of documentary film for social change - and these films reached audiences far beyond the confines of commercial cinema circuits in urban areas. "Framing the Nation" is a groundbreaking work that contributes to the scholarship on French history as well as to the histories of French and world cinema.