Direct Cinema Innovative Documentary Studies Online

Image from Subdivided (Dean Terry, US 2007)

Film Studies For Free is keepin it real today with a choice selection of links to mostly very recent, definitely innovative, and freely-accessible online documentary studies (last updated April 10, 2009):

• On the Rocumentary: Keith Beatty, Its Not Only Rock and Roll: Rockumentary, Direct Cinema, and Performative Display, Australasian Journal of American Studies. December 2005
• On Animation and Documentary: David Bordwell, Showing What Cant Be Filmed, Observations on Film Art and Film Art, March 24, 2009


• On Spectacle and Documentary: Elizabeth Cowie, The Spectacle of Reality and Documentary Film, Documentary Box, #10 (Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival) (1997) (Also see HERE; and do visit the main site Documentary Box Online Journal for many other great articles on documentary)


• On Music and Documentary: Leonardo DAmico, People and sounds”: Filming African music between visual anthropology and television documentary, Revista Transcultural de Música/Transcultural Music Review, #11 (2007)
• On Direct Address and Documentary: Alex Gerbaz, Direct Address, Ethical Imagination, and Errol Morris’s Interrotron, Film-Philosophy, 12.2, September 2008


• On Activism and Documentary: John Haynes, Documentary as Social Justice Activism: The Textual and Political Strategies of Robert Greenwald and Brave New Films, 49th Parallel, Vol.21 (Autumn 2007)


• On the Personal in Japanese Documentary: Nada Hisashi, Self-Documentary: Its Origins and Present State, Documentary Box, #26 (Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival), 2005


• On Adaptation and Documentary: David T. Johnson, Playgrounds of Unlimited Potential: Adaptation, Documentary, and Dogtown and Z-Boys, Adaptation Vol. 2 , No. 1 , pp. 1 – 16 (2009) (a free sample article from this new Oxford Journals periodical)


• On Performativity and Science Documentary: John Arthur Little, The Power and Potential of Performative Documentary Film, e-thesis April 2007, Montana State University
• On New Approaches to Documentary: B. Ruby Rich, Documentary Disciplines: An Introduction
  
• On New Media and Documentary: Bjørn Sørenssen, Digital video and Alexandre Astruc’s caméra-stylo: the new avant-garde in documentary realized?, Studies in Documentary Film, vol. 2, no. 1 (March 2008): 47-59 (see abstract; temporarily free online. Thanks a lot to Watching YouTube for the link)


• On Stylization, Abstraction and Documentary: Billy Budd Vermillion, The "Wondrous Truth" of Microcosmos, 16:9 - April 2007 - 5. årgang - nummer 21

Also see the great articles for the New worlds of documentary Special Section of Jump Cut, issue no. 48, winter 2006, edited by Julia Lesage:

Introduction: new worlds of documentary by Julia Lesage; Emergency analysis, Terri Schiavo: introduction The cutting edge: emergencies in visual culture by Janet Staiger; Schiavo videos context and reception: timely triage by Diane Waldman; Emergency analysis: the academic traffic in images by Catherine L. Preston; The videographic persistence of Terri Schiavo by Janet Walker Walker; A walk on the wild side: the changing face of TV wildlife documentary by Richard Kilborn; Strange Justice: sounding out the Right: Clarence Thomas, Anita Hill, and constructing spin in the name of justice by Steve Lipkin; Giving voice: performance and authenticity in the documentary musical by Derek Paget and Jane Roscoe; Video Vigilantes and the work of shame by Gareth Palmer; Audio documentary: a polemical introduction for the visual studies crowd by Chuck Kleinhans; TV news titles: picturing the planet by Sean Cubitt; Les Archives de la Planète: a cinematographic atlas by Teresa Castro; Cinephilia and the travel film: Gambling, Gods and LSD by Catherine Russell; Dark Days: a narrative of environmental adaptation by Joseph Heumann and Robin L. Murray; Feminist history making and Video Remains by Alexandra Juhasz.

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On CINEMATIC DIRECT ADDRESS Part One Mapping the Field

CINEMATIC DIRECT ADDRESS Part One: Mapping the Field - Video by Catherine Grant

This entry has been superseded by the following, later FSFF entry so why dont you head over there straightaway?

On Friday March 1, 2013, Film Studies For Frees author had the very great pleasure of interviewing Tom Brown, Lecturer in Film Studies at Kings College, London, on the subject of direct address in the cinema, a topic he knows a huge amount about as author of the only book completely dedicated to it: Breaking the Fourth Wall: Direct Address in the Cinema (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2012) [Its up already - you can find it here].  You can read the preface to Toms book online here (PDF), check out another article he uploaded about it here, and visit his wonderfully illustrated Tumblr on the topic here.

The recorded interview will be presented in two parts here at FSFF: part one is above and part two -- "YOU LOOKING AT ME? On Buñuels LOS OLVIDADOS" -- will follow soon in a separate entry accompanied, as is this blogs wont, by a full compendium of links to further online scholarly studies of this (of course not exclusively) cinematic phenomenon.

In the period of time between recording this interview and completing the editing of it for this blog, Leigh Singers great video supercut on breaking the fourth wall (see below) was published, to merited acclaim, at PressPlay. Singers essay -- which uses examples from a number of the same films as FSFFs video, is a hugely witty, skillful, and highly thought-provoking accompaniment to it. If you know of any further videographic studies of cinematic direct address, or indeed any other good resources, please let FSFF know about them via the comments.

Thanks! Yes! You there!

Breaking the 4th Wall Movie Supercut by Leigh Singer

A compilation of scenes and moments from films that all "break the fourth wall" - that is, acknowledge (usually directly to the camera, and therefore the audience) that theyre part of a movie. The term comes from the imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled box set in a proscenium theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play.

The montage includes 54 different films (some used more than once) from perhaps the very first example of breaking the fourth wall right up to today. There were so many other great examples I couldnt find room for (sadly, The Dude and The Big Lebowskis narrator dont abide here), Id love to hear which 4th wall breakers youd also include. Email me on leigh@singer-leisinger.com, or @Leigh_Singer on Twitter. Look forward to hearing your comments!

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