Feminism And Documentary (Volume 5) (Visible Evidence) - Softcover

Waldman, Diane

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0816630070 ISBN 13: 9780816630073

Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press, 1999

Synopsis

The first book of essays to explore the intersection of these two vital disciplines.

Documentary and feminist film studies have long been separate or parallel universes that need to converse or collide. The essays in this volume, written by prominent scholars and filmmakers, demonstrate the challenges that feminist perspectives pose for documentary theory, history, and practice. They also show how fuller attention to documentary enriches and complicates feminist theory, especially regarding the relationship between gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, class and nation.

Feminism and Documentary begins with a substantial historical introduction that highlights several of the specific areas that contributors address: debates over realism, the relationship between filmmaker and subject, historical thinking about documentary and thinking about the historical documentary, biography and autobiography, and the use of psychoanalysis. Other essays, most of which appear here for the first time, range from broad overviews to close analyses of particular films and videos and from discussions of well-known works such as Roger and Me and Don’t Look Back to lesser known texts that might revise the canon.

The collection includes an extensive filmography and videography with useful distribution information and a bibliography of work in this neglected area of scholarship. Lucid, sophisticated, and eye-opening, this book will galvanize documentary studies and demonstrate the need for women’s and cultural studies to grapple with visual media.

Contributors: Michelle Citron, Northwestern U; Gloria J. Gibson, Indiana U; Chris Holmlund, U of Tennessee; Alexandra Juhasz, Pitzer College; Ann Kaneko; Anahid Kassabian, Fordham U; David Kazanjian, U of California, Berkeley; Susan Knobloch; Silvia Kratzer-Juilfs; Deborah Lefkowitz; Julia Lesage, U of Oregon; Laura U. Marks, Carleton U, Ottawa; Paula Rabinowitz, U of Minnesota; Michael Renov, USC; Patricia R. Zimmermann, Ithaca College.

About this title

About the Author

Diane Waldman is associate professor in the Department of Mass Communications at the University of Denver. Janet Walker is associate professor of film studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Reviews

The editors of this collection of essays believe that documentary studies could benefit by looking at feminist film theory because they share many common areas of concern. For example, one issue in documentary filmmaking is the ethics involved in the unequal filmmaker/subject relationship, with the filmmaker in a position of power, imposing an "eye" on the subject's life and world. The filmmaker's stay in the subject's world is usually temporary, while the subject must live with any repercussions from the film's release. Unfortunately, the debate over this issue ignores the whole genre of autobiographical documentaries. Feminist theory has looked at the issues of identity and power sharing in ways that have meaning for this question, and feminist autobiographical films and videos abound. The scope of this work is international, including articles on films about immigrant workers in Japan, Turkish "guest workers" in Germany, and the Armenian Diaspora. A scholarly, demanding work; recommended for academic film collections only.AMarianne Cawley, Charleston Cty. Lib., SC
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0816630070
• ISBN 13: 9780816630073
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 376