Thomas S. Davis
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231169424
- eISBN:
- 9780231537889
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231169424.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter argues that documentary aesthetics turn to everyday life in order to create works that promoted the norms and values of the British liberal state during its period of greatest distress.
This chapter argues that documentary aesthetics turn to everyday life in order to create works that promoted the norms and values of the British liberal state during its period of greatest distress.
Alice Bach
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195335989
- eISBN:
- 9780199868940
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195335989.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
With a wealth of material already published on the general project of matching films with biblical texts (especially within the “sword‐and‐sandal” genre), this chapter proposes a new method that uses ...
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With a wealth of material already published on the general project of matching films with biblical texts (especially within the “sword‐and‐sandal” genre), this chapter proposes a new method that uses documentaries about Palestinians and Israelis in order to approach critical theory and religion. Instead of engaging students in film criticism by comparing text to film representation, documentaries involve the students in the social criticism those very same texts present. This chapter includes appendices with extensive bibliographies on Bible and film, as well as religion and film material.Less
With a wealth of material already published on the general project of matching films with biblical texts (especially within the “sword‐and‐sandal” genre), this chapter proposes a new method that uses documentaries about Palestinians and Israelis in order to approach critical theory and religion. Instead of engaging students in film criticism by comparing text to film representation, documentaries involve the students in the social criticism those very same texts present. This chapter includes appendices with extensive bibliographies on Bible and film, as well as religion and film material.
Amir Hussain
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195335989
- eISBN:
- 9780199868940
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195335989.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter will be useful to those who want to incorporate film into their introductory course on Islam. It discusses the representations of Islam and of Muslim lives in contemporary Western films ...
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This chapter will be useful to those who want to incorporate film into their introductory course on Islam. It discusses the representations of Islam and of Muslim lives in contemporary Western films and the way in which these relate to the particular challenges of using movies to teach Islam. The chapter describes various motion pictures to give a sense of the range of Islamic issues that movies can productively portray, including fundamentalism and assimilation. There is also a discussion of films from the Muslim world (most notably Iran) that depict Muslim life in a way that is not usually seen in Western films. Tips on the use of documentary films about Islam are also provided.Less
This chapter will be useful to those who want to incorporate film into their introductory course on Islam. It discusses the representations of Islam and of Muslim lives in contemporary Western films and the way in which these relate to the particular challenges of using movies to teach Islam. The chapter describes various motion pictures to give a sense of the range of Islamic issues that movies can productively portray, including fundamentalism and assimilation. There is also a discussion of films from the Muslim world (most notably Iran) that depict Muslim life in a way that is not usually seen in Western films. Tips on the use of documentary films about Islam are also provided.
Hikari Hori
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781501714542
- eISBN:
- 9781501709524
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501714542.003.0004
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Chapter Three shows how documentary film was a rich and chaotic site for nationalist, imperialist, and anti-imperialist experimentation. Introducing the female documentarian Atsugi Taka (1907-98) as ...
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Chapter Three shows how documentary film was a rich and chaotic site for nationalist, imperialist, and anti-imperialist experimentation. Introducing the female documentarian Atsugi Taka (1907-98) as a guide, the chapter demonstrates the development of the genre and show how practitioners worked within and around official ideologies and the restrictive media-scape. Atsugi is well-known for her translation of the theoretical treatise Documentary Film (1935) by British producer and theorist Paul Rotha. The book attracted an unexpectedly wide audience in Japan during WWII when documentary as genre flourished. Atsugi’s own films also present a tangled, complicated site of production where she navigated the gender politics of filmmaking and everyday life, state suppression of socialist and proletarian movements, and the problems of adapting socialist British theory to actual filmmaking in totalitarian Japan. (129 words)Less
Chapter Three shows how documentary film was a rich and chaotic site for nationalist, imperialist, and anti-imperialist experimentation. Introducing the female documentarian Atsugi Taka (1907-98) as a guide, the chapter demonstrates the development of the genre and show how practitioners worked within and around official ideologies and the restrictive media-scape. Atsugi is well-known for her translation of the theoretical treatise Documentary Film (1935) by British producer and theorist Paul Rotha. The book attracted an unexpectedly wide audience in Japan during WWII when documentary as genre flourished. Atsugi’s own films also present a tangled, complicated site of production where she navigated the gender politics of filmmaking and everyday life, state suppression of socialist and proletarian movements, and the problems of adapting socialist British theory to actual filmmaking in totalitarian Japan. (129 words)
Gregory J. Watkins
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195335989
- eISBN:
- 9780199868940
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195335989.003.0018
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter reports on a course that successfully uses film to introduce students to the basic theoretical approaches to the study of religion. In conjunction with primary text selections from some ...
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This chapter reports on a course that successfully uses film to introduce students to the basic theoretical approaches to the study of religion. In conjunction with primary text selections from some of the great theorists of religion, students use the films they see to deepen their appreciation and consideration of the various theoretical orientations while asking about the nature of film itself. The course is guided by an overarching consideration of the proposition that film makes possible a unique articulation of religious thought and experience. The chapter also discusses some of the practical challenges of making film viewing a central part of the work in the course, from the logistics of screenings to the use of film clips on exams.Less
This chapter reports on a course that successfully uses film to introduce students to the basic theoretical approaches to the study of religion. In conjunction with primary text selections from some of the great theorists of religion, students use the films they see to deepen their appreciation and consideration of the various theoretical orientations while asking about the nature of film itself. The course is guided by an overarching consideration of the proposition that film makes possible a unique articulation of religious thought and experience. The chapter also discusses some of the practical challenges of making film viewing a central part of the work in the course, from the logistics of screenings to the use of film clips on exams.
Thomas Davis
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231169424
- eISBN:
- 9780231537889
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231169424.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
In 1935, the English writer Stephen Spender wrote that the historical pressures of his era should “turn the reader’s and writer’s attention outwards from himself to the world.” Combining historical, ...
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In 1935, the English writer Stephen Spender wrote that the historical pressures of his era should “turn the reader’s and writer’s attention outwards from himself to the world.” Combining historical, formalist, and archival approaches, Thomas S. Davis examines late modernism’s decisive turn toward everyday life, locating in the heightened scrutiny of details, textures, and experiences an intimate attempt to conceptualize geopolitical disorder.The Extinct Scene reads a range of mid-century texts, films, and phenomena that reflect the decline of the British Empire and seismic shifts in the global political order. Davis follows the rise of documentary film culture and the British Documentary Film Movement, especially the work of John Grierson, Humphrey Jennings, and Basil Wright. He then considers the influence of late modernist periodical culture on social attitudes and customs, and presents original analyses of novels by Virginia Woolf, Christopher Isherwood, and Colin MacInnes; the interwar travel narratives of W. H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood, and George Orwell; the wartime gothic fiction of Elizabeth Bowen; the poetry of H. D.; the sketches of Henry Moore; and the postimperial Anglophone Caribbean works of Vic Reid, Sam Selvon, and George Lamming. By considering this group of writers and artists, Davis recasts late modernism as an art of scale: by detailing the particulars of everyday life, these figures could better project large-scale geopolitical events and crises.Less
In 1935, the English writer Stephen Spender wrote that the historical pressures of his era should “turn the reader’s and writer’s attention outwards from himself to the world.” Combining historical, formalist, and archival approaches, Thomas S. Davis examines late modernism’s decisive turn toward everyday life, locating in the heightened scrutiny of details, textures, and experiences an intimate attempt to conceptualize geopolitical disorder.The Extinct Scene reads a range of mid-century texts, films, and phenomena that reflect the decline of the British Empire and seismic shifts in the global political order. Davis follows the rise of documentary film culture and the British Documentary Film Movement, especially the work of John Grierson, Humphrey Jennings, and Basil Wright. He then considers the influence of late modernist periodical culture on social attitudes and customs, and presents original analyses of novels by Virginia Woolf, Christopher Isherwood, and Colin MacInnes; the interwar travel narratives of W. H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood, and George Orwell; the wartime gothic fiction of Elizabeth Bowen; the poetry of H. D.; the sketches of Henry Moore; and the postimperial Anglophone Caribbean works of Vic Reid, Sam Selvon, and George Lamming. By considering this group of writers and artists, Davis recasts late modernism as an art of scale: by detailing the particulars of everyday life, these figures could better project large-scale geopolitical events and crises.
Kelley Conway
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252039720
- eISBN:
- 9780252097829
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252039720.003.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter highlights Agnès Varda's place in New Wave cinema history. It illustrates how Varda's ever-shifting profile has evolved from avant-garde precursor to the “grandmother” of the New Wave. ...
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This chapter highlights Agnès Varda's place in New Wave cinema history. It illustrates how Varda's ever-shifting profile has evolved from avant-garde precursor to the “grandmother” of the New Wave. Yet what remains consistent here is her commitment to storytelling that foregrounds isolated people in distinctive settings in both documentary and fiction films. Varda's ongoing journey reveals an artist who needs to create, who is in motion and incapable of ceasing, making do with whatever resources are available to her (including harnessing that creativity toward visual arts and installation when funds for filmmaking were scarce), remaining eminently pragmatic even when attacking new challenges.Less
This chapter highlights Agnès Varda's place in New Wave cinema history. It illustrates how Varda's ever-shifting profile has evolved from avant-garde precursor to the “grandmother” of the New Wave. Yet what remains consistent here is her commitment to storytelling that foregrounds isolated people in distinctive settings in both documentary and fiction films. Varda's ongoing journey reveals an artist who needs to create, who is in motion and incapable of ceasing, making do with whatever resources are available to her (including harnessing that creativity toward visual arts and installation when funds for filmmaking were scarce), remaining eminently pragmatic even when attacking new challenges.
Kaitlin M. Murphy
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780823282548
- eISBN:
- 9780823284818
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823282548.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Latin American Studies
In this chapter, the author more fully develops the theoretical contours of memory mapping. Grounded in study of the Salvadoran documentary El Lugar Más Pequeño (The Tiniest Place, 2011), the author ...
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In this chapter, the author more fully develops the theoretical contours of memory mapping. Grounded in study of the Salvadoran documentary El Lugar Más Pequeño (The Tiniest Place, 2011), the author investigates connections between: performative visuality as a means of transmitting embodied knowledge and place-making; haunting, memory, testimony, and affect. This chapter is guided by the following: How do we render visually and affectively knowable the ongoing negotiations of living among the ruins of history? What is the relationship between memory and affect? How might the lens of memory mapping offer new perceptions and understandings of the post-conflict period?Less
In this chapter, the author more fully develops the theoretical contours of memory mapping. Grounded in study of the Salvadoran documentary El Lugar Más Pequeño (The Tiniest Place, 2011), the author investigates connections between: performative visuality as a means of transmitting embodied knowledge and place-making; haunting, memory, testimony, and affect. This chapter is guided by the following: How do we render visually and affectively knowable the ongoing negotiations of living among the ruins of history? What is the relationship between memory and affect? How might the lens of memory mapping offer new perceptions and understandings of the post-conflict period?
Torben Grodal
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195371314
- eISBN:
- 9780199870585
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195371314.003.0012
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
This chapter analyzes what viewers experience as real and argues that the feeling of realism is only loosely linked to what is actually real. It describes the explicit or tacit feelings that label ...
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This chapter analyzes what viewers experience as real and argues that the feeling of realism is only loosely linked to what is actually real. It describes the explicit or tacit feelings that label the reality status of perceptions, cognitions, and actions, and shows that such feelings are shorthand tags for the way in which brain circuits evaluate the reality status of experiences in order to decide whether the embodied brain can act, “go,” or not. The go-signal is feelings of realism and the stop-signal is feelings of unrealness; physical or mental actions in fictions provide realism, and documentary representations may provide a lyrical and “unrealistic” feelings if they do not afford actions. The author discusses different types of realism: perceptual realism in contrast to categorical realism, which deals with what is generally and abstractly real; and discusses those types of realism that mimic direct reporting and use perceptual imperfections to warrant that this is a real, unstaged representation. Last, the chapter discusses the psychological reasons that films portraying negative experiences are traditionally more often called realistic than those that portray positive events, and why postmodern skepticism toward realism is unwarranted.Less
This chapter analyzes what viewers experience as real and argues that the feeling of realism is only loosely linked to what is actually real. It describes the explicit or tacit feelings that label the reality status of perceptions, cognitions, and actions, and shows that such feelings are shorthand tags for the way in which brain circuits evaluate the reality status of experiences in order to decide whether the embodied brain can act, “go,” or not. The go-signal is feelings of realism and the stop-signal is feelings of unrealness; physical or mental actions in fictions provide realism, and documentary representations may provide a lyrical and “unrealistic” feelings if they do not afford actions. The author discusses different types of realism: perceptual realism in contrast to categorical realism, which deals with what is generally and abstractly real; and discusses those types of realism that mimic direct reporting and use perceptual imperfections to warrant that this is a real, unstaged representation. Last, the chapter discusses the psychological reasons that films portraying negative experiences are traditionally more often called realistic than those that portray positive events, and why postmodern skepticism toward realism is unwarranted.
Keith Beattie
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719078552
- eISBN:
- 9781781701836
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719078552.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Humphrey Jennings has been described as the only real poet of British cinema. His documentary films employ a range of representational approaches – including collagist narrative structures and ...
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Humphrey Jennings has been described as the only real poet of British cinema. His documentary films employ a range of representational approaches – including collagist narrative structures and dramatic re-enactment – in ways that transcend accepted notions of wartime propaganda and revise the strict codes of British documentary film of the 1930s and 1940s. The resultant body of work is a remarkable record of Britain at peace and war. This study examines a productive ambiguity of meanings associated with the subtle interaction of images and sounds within Jennings' films, and considers the ideological and institutional contexts and forces that impacted on the formal structure of his films. Central and lesser-known films are analysed, including Spare Time, Words for Battle, Listen to Britain, Fires Were Started, The Silent Village, A Diary for Timothy and Family Portrait. Poet, propagandist, surrealist and documentary filmmaker – Jennings' work embodies a mix of apprehension, personal expression and representational innovation. This book examines and explains the central components of Jennings' most significant films, and considers the relevance of his filmmaking to British cinema and contemporary experience.Less
Humphrey Jennings has been described as the only real poet of British cinema. His documentary films employ a range of representational approaches – including collagist narrative structures and dramatic re-enactment – in ways that transcend accepted notions of wartime propaganda and revise the strict codes of British documentary film of the 1930s and 1940s. The resultant body of work is a remarkable record of Britain at peace and war. This study examines a productive ambiguity of meanings associated with the subtle interaction of images and sounds within Jennings' films, and considers the ideological and institutional contexts and forces that impacted on the formal structure of his films. Central and lesser-known films are analysed, including Spare Time, Words for Battle, Listen to Britain, Fires Were Started, The Silent Village, A Diary for Timothy and Family Portrait. Poet, propagandist, surrealist and documentary filmmaker – Jennings' work embodies a mix of apprehension, personal expression and representational innovation. This book examines and explains the central components of Jennings' most significant films, and considers the relevance of his filmmaking to British cinema and contemporary experience.
Kaitlin M. Murphy
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780823282548
- eISBN:
- 9780823284818
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823282548.003.0003
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Latin American Studies
Chapter Two focuses on the relationship between visuality, affect, memory, and place within the context of temporality, materiality, and performative reenactment. The chapter is grounded in an ...
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Chapter Two focuses on the relationship between visuality, affect, memory, and place within the context of temporality, materiality, and performative reenactment. The chapter is grounded in an investigation of the relationship between memory and materiality, and asks how material matter can be strategically employed in the service of political historiographies; and how bodies, by way of reenactment, can function as a strategic component of exhuming and mapping memory onto place. It focuses on two documentaries, both by Chilean filmmaker Patricio Guzmán: Chile, la Memoria Obstinada (Chile, Obstinate Memory, 1997) and Nostalgia de la Luz (Nostalgia for the Light, 2010). If official histories, by definition, sublimate and attempt to make transgressive memories disappear, then it is essential to investigate the ways in which memory persists in bodies and lived experience, and in the mnemonic potency of physical objects and spaces. Through meticulous memory mapping, Guzmán’s films illustrate the immense historiographical value in bringing bodies, materiality (including bones, objects, images, and physical sites), and official histories into contact and dialogue with one another.Less
Chapter Two focuses on the relationship between visuality, affect, memory, and place within the context of temporality, materiality, and performative reenactment. The chapter is grounded in an investigation of the relationship between memory and materiality, and asks how material matter can be strategically employed in the service of political historiographies; and how bodies, by way of reenactment, can function as a strategic component of exhuming and mapping memory onto place. It focuses on two documentaries, both by Chilean filmmaker Patricio Guzmán: Chile, la Memoria Obstinada (Chile, Obstinate Memory, 1997) and Nostalgia de la Luz (Nostalgia for the Light, 2010). If official histories, by definition, sublimate and attempt to make transgressive memories disappear, then it is essential to investigate the ways in which memory persists in bodies and lived experience, and in the mnemonic potency of physical objects and spaces. Through meticulous memory mapping, Guzmán’s films illustrate the immense historiographical value in bringing bodies, materiality (including bones, objects, images, and physical sites), and official histories into contact and dialogue with one another.
Esther M. K. Cheung, Nicole Kempton, and Amy Lee
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789888028566
- eISBN:
- 9789882206991
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888028566.003.0010
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
In recounting the last fifteen years of the independent film movement in Hong Kong, it is impossible not to mention Tammy Cheung's name. Even though she does not make narrative films, she has ...
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In recounting the last fifteen years of the independent film movement in Hong Kong, it is impossible not to mention Tammy Cheung's name. Even though she does not make narrative films, she has nevertheless made inroads with documentary films. She focuses on social and human problems as her subject matter and uses direct cinema as her approach. Without the use of voice-over narration, she explores the limits of objectivity and what she calls the “freedom of movement” in the direct cinema style. Her works such as Secondary School and July have elicited a significant response from the community. Even though finding capital and support is incredibly difficult, she claims she will continue filming into the future. Likewise, Hong Kong most certainly needs a documentary culture that records both major historical events as well as reflections from the streets.Less
In recounting the last fifteen years of the independent film movement in Hong Kong, it is impossible not to mention Tammy Cheung's name. Even though she does not make narrative films, she has nevertheless made inroads with documentary films. She focuses on social and human problems as her subject matter and uses direct cinema as her approach. Without the use of voice-over narration, she explores the limits of objectivity and what she calls the “freedom of movement” in the direct cinema style. Her works such as Secondary School and July have elicited a significant response from the community. Even though finding capital and support is incredibly difficult, she claims she will continue filming into the future. Likewise, Hong Kong most certainly needs a documentary culture that records both major historical events as well as reflections from the streets.
Ian Aitken and Camille Deprez
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781474407205
- eISBN:
- 9781474430487
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474407205.003.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
The Introduction sets out an overview of the book and summaries of the individual chapters in the book. In addition, the Introduction also provides a justification for the geographical scope and time ...
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The Introduction sets out an overview of the book and summaries of the individual chapters in the book. In addition, the Introduction also provides a justification for the geographical scope and time frame of the book, attempts to arrive at a definition of the colonial documentary film, and seeks to establish and analyse the encounter between colonialism and documentary cinema in South and South-East Asia. In addition, the Introduction also attempts to reassess current understandings of the colonial documentary film.Less
The Introduction sets out an overview of the book and summaries of the individual chapters in the book. In addition, the Introduction also provides a justification for the geographical scope and time frame of the book, attempts to arrive at a definition of the colonial documentary film, and seeks to establish and analyse the encounter between colonialism and documentary cinema in South and South-East Asia. In addition, the Introduction also attempts to reassess current understandings of the colonial documentary film.
Leslie Kealhofer-Kemp
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781781381984
- eISBN:
- 9781786945211
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781381984.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
The chapter examines a wide variety of documentaries featuring Muslim women from the Maghreb in France. It critically analyzes the different mediations and techniques, such as the use of ...
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The chapter examines a wide variety of documentaries featuring Muslim women from the Maghreb in France. It critically analyzes the different mediations and techniques, such as the use of extra-diegetic music, voiceover, and archive material, that are employed in the documentaries and serve to ‘frame’ the women’s voices in various ways and with different consequences. It identifies three distinct levels of intervention: the first involves a heavy-handed approach, where the voices of the women are significantly ‘framed’ or even drowned out (most notably in the post-production process). The second reflects a more minimalist approach with regard to framing, while the third appears to be minimalist or transparent but in fact involves a significant degree of intervention. In examining the different forms of mediation and degrees of intervention at work in these documentaries, as well as the consequences of this with regard to the voices of the Maghrebi migrant women in them, this analysis draws on Bill Nichols’ critical writings on the different modes of documentary, notably expository, observational, and interactive. The films examined in this chapter include documentaries directed by Yamina Benguigui, Malek Bensmaïl, and Yasmina Kherfi.Less
The chapter examines a wide variety of documentaries featuring Muslim women from the Maghreb in France. It critically analyzes the different mediations and techniques, such as the use of extra-diegetic music, voiceover, and archive material, that are employed in the documentaries and serve to ‘frame’ the women’s voices in various ways and with different consequences. It identifies three distinct levels of intervention: the first involves a heavy-handed approach, where the voices of the women are significantly ‘framed’ or even drowned out (most notably in the post-production process). The second reflects a more minimalist approach with regard to framing, while the third appears to be minimalist or transparent but in fact involves a significant degree of intervention. In examining the different forms of mediation and degrees of intervention at work in these documentaries, as well as the consequences of this with regard to the voices of the Maghrebi migrant women in them, this analysis draws on Bill Nichols’ critical writings on the different modes of documentary, notably expository, observational, and interactive. The films examined in this chapter include documentaries directed by Yamina Benguigui, Malek Bensmaïl, and Yasmina Kherfi.
Thomas Waugh
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816645862
- eISBN:
- 9781452945859
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816645862.003.0005
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter examines the nature of American documentary films of the 1970s and emphasizes their departure from the cinéma vérité traditional impulse that dominated the 1960s. It discusses three ...
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This chapter examines the nature of American documentary films of the 1970s and emphasizes their departure from the cinéma vérité traditional impulse that dominated the 1960s. It discusses three distinct currents of dissident filmmaking during the Vietnam War. The first was based on a series of controversial television documentaries that aired on PBS and commercial networks, such as Banks and the Poor. The second was based on efforts by a number of New Left Movement filmmakers to compensate for the media blackout of the Vietnam War. These documentaries originally came from Newsreel, an organization whose strategy of polarization and confrontation differed from the stance of socially conscious journalism. They initiated a tradition of alternate radical documentary that focused on the networks of radical communities located across youth urban and campus centers. The third was established by filmmaker Emile de Antonio who targeted the intellectual middle class.Less
This chapter examines the nature of American documentary films of the 1970s and emphasizes their departure from the cinéma vérité traditional impulse that dominated the 1960s. It discusses three distinct currents of dissident filmmaking during the Vietnam War. The first was based on a series of controversial television documentaries that aired on PBS and commercial networks, such as Banks and the Poor. The second was based on efforts by a number of New Left Movement filmmakers to compensate for the media blackout of the Vietnam War. These documentaries originally came from Newsreel, an organization whose strategy of polarization and confrontation differed from the stance of socially conscious journalism. They initiated a tradition of alternate radical documentary that focused on the networks of radical communities located across youth urban and campus centers. The third was established by filmmaker Emile de Antonio who targeted the intellectual middle class.
Aida Vallejo
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780748694136
- eISBN:
- 9781474412193
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748694136.003.0012
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter reflects on the role of film festivals as nodal points for the development of the documentary, in order to identify which powers influence and challenge its independent character. Taking ...
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This chapter reflects on the role of film festivals as nodal points for the development of the documentary, in order to identify which powers influence and challenge its independent character. Taking the professional trajectory of Czech filmmakers Vít Klusák and Filip Remunda as a case study, it focuses on the different production and distribution strategies they developed for their feature-length documentaries Czech Dream/Česk ý Sen (2004) and Czech Peace/Český Mír (2010). These films can be considered paradigmatic examples of both highly creative approaches to documentary language and activist film practices as they tackle two controversial topics: the new consumerist society in former Communist countries and international politics in the first case, and a US initiative to establish a military radar site in Eastern Europe in the second.Less
This chapter reflects on the role of film festivals as nodal points for the development of the documentary, in order to identify which powers influence and challenge its independent character. Taking the professional trajectory of Czech filmmakers Vít Klusák and Filip Remunda as a case study, it focuses on the different production and distribution strategies they developed for their feature-length documentaries Czech Dream/Česk ý Sen (2004) and Czech Peace/Český Mír (2010). These films can be considered paradigmatic examples of both highly creative approaches to documentary language and activist film practices as they tackle two controversial topics: the new consumerist society in former Communist countries and international politics in the first case, and a US initiative to establish a military radar site in Eastern Europe in the second.
Jeffrey Geiger
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748621477
- eISBN:
- 9780748670796
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748621477.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
American Documentary Film focuses on the extensive range and history of nonfiction filmmaking in the USA, investigating how documentary films have reflected varied and often competing visions of US ...
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American Documentary Film focuses on the extensive range and history of nonfiction filmmaking in the USA, investigating how documentary films have reflected varied and often competing visions of US culture, history, and national identity. Documentary has long been a negotiated and changing concept: a site of social, intellectual, and aesthetic investment keenly fought over and debated. In this sense documentary films also create a kind of public space: they act as sites for community-building, public expression, and social innovation; they contribute to the public sphere. This book distills key aspects of the documentary idea while tracing the form's development over time, focusing on the ways documentaries have given shape to the experience and comprehension of a national imaginary. Combining comprehensive overviews with in-depth case studies, Geiger examines the impact of pre- and early cinema, travelogues, the avant-garde, 1930s social documentary, Second World War propaganda, direct cinema, postmodernism and the crisis of ‘truth’, and the new media age.Less
American Documentary Film focuses on the extensive range and history of nonfiction filmmaking in the USA, investigating how documentary films have reflected varied and often competing visions of US culture, history, and national identity. Documentary has long been a negotiated and changing concept: a site of social, intellectual, and aesthetic investment keenly fought over and debated. In this sense documentary films also create a kind of public space: they act as sites for community-building, public expression, and social innovation; they contribute to the public sphere. This book distills key aspects of the documentary idea while tracing the form's development over time, focusing on the ways documentaries have given shape to the experience and comprehension of a national imaginary. Combining comprehensive overviews with in-depth case studies, Geiger examines the impact of pre- and early cinema, travelogues, the avant-garde, 1930s social documentary, Second World War propaganda, direct cinema, postmodernism and the crisis of ‘truth’, and the new media age.
Camille Deprez and Judith Pernin
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780748694136
- eISBN:
- 9781474412193
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748694136.003.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, namely to draw attention to the similarities between heterogeneous documentary practices and forms by offering in-depth analyses of significant ...
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This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, namely to draw attention to the similarities between heterogeneous documentary practices and forms by offering in-depth analyses of significant independent documentary works in the post-1990 era. It examines recent cases where independence is at stake, either in the discourse developed by documentary practitioners themselves or in the supposed systems within which documentary images are produced. Hence, the purpose of this collective volume is to adjust an ever-changing term to the concrete modifications of documentary film practices, as well as to the new constraints and opportunities that have appeared in this field over the past twenty-five years. The technological changes taking place in the 1990s and 2000s have played a significant role in reshaping documentary film practices. However, the consequences of the digital revolution still need to be addressed without overestimating the impact of technology on other political, economic, social, and cultural changes.Less
This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, namely to draw attention to the similarities between heterogeneous documentary practices and forms by offering in-depth analyses of significant independent documentary works in the post-1990 era. It examines recent cases where independence is at stake, either in the discourse developed by documentary practitioners themselves or in the supposed systems within which documentary images are produced. Hence, the purpose of this collective volume is to adjust an ever-changing term to the concrete modifications of documentary film practices, as well as to the new constraints and opportunities that have appeared in this field over the past twenty-five years. The technological changes taking place in the 1990s and 2000s have played a significant role in reshaping documentary film practices. However, the consequences of the digital revolution still need to be addressed without overestimating the impact of technology on other political, economic, social, and cultural changes.
Noël Carroll
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300091953
- eISBN:
- 9780300133073
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300091953.003.0010
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This chapter discusses Gregory Currie's characteristically stimulating and carefully crafted article “Visible Traces: Documentary Film and the Contents of Photographs,” which introduces a ...
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This chapter discusses Gregory Currie's characteristically stimulating and carefully crafted article “Visible Traces: Documentary Film and the Contents of Photographs,” which introduces a sophisticated theory of the documentary film. For Currie, a documentary film is one comprised of a preponderance of photographic images that function in the context of the relevant film as traces of the objects and events that causally produced them. An image of Gregory Peck in a documentary film is a representation of Gregory Peck, a photographic trace of the actor at a certain time and place. A documentary about Gregory Peck is constructed mostly of such images. Whereas in a fictional film, like To Kill a Mockingbird, photographic images of Gregory Peck are used to represent the fictional character Atticus Finch, in a documentary film—such as a biography of Gregory Peck—traces represent the living actor.Less
This chapter discusses Gregory Currie's characteristically stimulating and carefully crafted article “Visible Traces: Documentary Film and the Contents of Photographs,” which introduces a sophisticated theory of the documentary film. For Currie, a documentary film is one comprised of a preponderance of photographic images that function in the context of the relevant film as traces of the objects and events that causally produced them. An image of Gregory Peck in a documentary film is a representation of Gregory Peck, a photographic trace of the actor at a certain time and place. A documentary about Gregory Peck is constructed mostly of such images. Whereas in a fictional film, like To Kill a Mockingbird, photographic images of Gregory Peck are used to represent the fictional character Atticus Finch, in a documentary film—such as a biography of Gregory Peck—traces represent the living actor.
James Chapman
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780853237631
- eISBN:
- 9781846312489
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/UPO9781846312489.002
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter examines the role of cinema and the nature of the British cinema during World War 2. It discusses the role of cinema as a medium of entertainment and a vehicle of propaganda and ...
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This chapter examines the role of cinema and the nature of the British cinema during World War 2. It discusses the role of cinema as a medium of entertainment and a vehicle of propaganda and considers the relationship between the film industry and the Ministry of Information (MoI).It analyses different views about the success of films like Millions Like Us, Nine Men and The Way Ahead and argues that the MoI not only guided the film industry on matters of propaganda but also facilitated the ‘wartime wedding’ between feature films and documentary.Less
This chapter examines the role of cinema and the nature of the British cinema during World War 2. It discusses the role of cinema as a medium of entertainment and a vehicle of propaganda and considers the relationship between the film industry and the Ministry of Information (MoI).It analyses different views about the success of films like Millions Like Us, Nine Men and The Way Ahead and argues that the MoI not only guided the film industry on matters of propaganda but also facilitated the ‘wartime wedding’ between feature films and documentary.
