American Documentary Film Projecting the Nation

by Geiger, Jeffrey

• ISBN13: 9780748621477
• ISBN10: 0748621474
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-06-29
• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Summary

American Documentary Film charts the evolution of non-fiction film filmmaking in the US, showing how documentary has long served as a medium for reflecting varied and often competing narratives of American identity, culture, and history. Filmmakers like Robert Flaherty, Pare Lorentz, Barbara Kopple, Frederick Wiseman, Errol Morris, Michael Moore, and Marlon Riggs - all discussed in this book - have passionately drawn attention to what they believed were the cultural and social realities overlooked by more mainstream films. At the same time, the documentary form has been used to spur on patriotic fervour in times of war; it has packaged the complexities of local, national, and world affairs into newsreels and television news; and it has provided light 'reality' entertainments, spectacles, and other forms of popular distraction. Key questions examined here include: How does documentary produce 'truthful' images? What are the continuities and changes in US documentary film practice? How can issues of power and authority alter a film's meanings? How has the documentary form reflected shifting racial, gendered, and national identities over time? American Documentary Film engages with a range of issues in film and media, drawing on American cinema history, television news, and comparative media studies.This book offers:*an analysis of critical debates relating to representations of reality *a historical account of major documentary forms and practices in the US*detailed and cogent analyses of key documentary film texts.

Author Biography

Jeffrey Geiger is a senior lecturer in film studies at the University of Essex. He has published widely on documentary film and American Studies, as well as having a background in film production. His books include Facing the Pacific: Polynesia and the U.S. Imperial Imagination and, the co-edited Film Analysis: A Norton Reader.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. vii
List of illustrations	p. ix
List of abbreviations	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
Novelties, Spectacles and the Documentary Impulse	p. 17
Case studies: Blacksmith Scene (1893), Buffalo Dance (1894), Mess Call (1896)
Virtual Travels and the Tourist Gaze	p. 40
Case study: Nanook of the North (1922)
Serious Play: Documentary and the Avant-Garde	p. 65
Case study: Manhatta (1921)
Activism and Advocacy: The Depression Era	p. 86
Case study: The Plow that Broke the Plains (1936)
Idea-Weapons: Documentary Propaganda	p. 121
Case study: The Memphis Belle (1944)
'Uncontrolled'Situations: Direct Cinema	p. 154
Case study: Grey Gardens (1975)
Relative Truths: Documentary and Postmodernity	p. 186
Case study: Tongues Untied (1989)
Media Wars: Documentary Dispersion	p. 217
Case study: Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)
Bibliography	p. 242
Index	p. 263
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