Recording Reality, Desiring the Real
Elizabeth Cowie
Abstract
Documentary has once again emerged as one of the most vital cultural forms, whether seen in cinemas or inside the home, as digital, film, or video. This book looks at the history of documentary and its contemporary forms, showing how it has been simultaneously understood as factual, as story, as art, and as political, addressing the seeming paradox between the pleasures of spectacle in the documentary and its project of informing and educating. The book claims that, as a radical film form, documentary has been a way for filmmakers to acknowledge historical and contemporary realities by present ... More
Documentary has once again emerged as one of the most vital cultural forms, whether seen in cinemas or inside the home, as digital, film, or video. This book looks at the history of documentary and its contemporary forms, showing how it has been simultaneously understood as factual, as story, as art, and as political, addressing the seeming paradox between the pleasures of spectacle in the documentary and its project of informing and educating. The book claims that, as a radical film form, documentary has been a way for filmmakers to acknowledge historical and contemporary realities by presenting images of these realities. If documentary is the desire to know reality through its images and sounds, it asks, what kind of speaking (and speaking about) emerges in documentary, and how are we engaged by it? In considering this and other questions, the book examines a range of noteworthy films, including Spike Lee’s When the Levees Broke, John Huston’s Let There Be Light, and MilicaTomi’s Portrait of My Mother.
Keywords:
documentary,
historical realities,
contemporary realities,
Spike Lee,
John Huston,
MilicaTomi
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2011 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780816645480 |
| Published to Minnesota Scholarship Online: August 2015 |
DOI:10.5749/minnesota/9780816645480.001.0001 |
