Plus: A conversation between Errol Morris and Werner Herzog.
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What is the place of the documentary journalism within the relentless crush of the 24-hour news cycle? Are there differences in methodology between the filmmaker and the journalist? Does the medium matter (print versus broadcast versus the Internet versus film)? Are there clear lines of demarcation, or does one simply leave off where the other begins? The answers may lie in how the work of journalists and filmmakers, and/or journalists/filmmakers, is perceived beyond their respective communities, as well as how consumers want to receive news. With the best journalism programs in the country
F Is for Phony: Fake Documentary and Truth's Undoing Editors: Alexandra Juhasz and Jesse Lerner University of Minnesota Press, 2006 244 pages This is Volume 17 in the Visible Evidence Series edited by Michael Renov, Faye Ginsburg and Jane Gaines. Imagine yourself living in Germany in the late 1930s. If you're hiding Jews in your house, how would you respond if the Gestapo knocked on your door and asked, "Do you have any Jews in your basement?" "Yes" will doom those you're hiding and perhaps yourself, and "No" will start you on a slippery slope of telling the truth only when it is in your best
By Thomas White and Tamara Krinsky In this turbo-charged era, it is possible to get nostalgic for something that happened just a week ago. So, we present one last look back at that ten-day extravangaza in the snow. When we last left off, at the mid-point, Tamara Krinsky, through her day job as reporter/producer at iklipz, was furnishing us with dispatches from various parties where the docu-faithful flocked,; Sarah Jo Marks had filed one blog, then got busy with the film she's repping, The Fighting Cholitas, which went to earn an honorable mention in the shorts category; and I, Tom White, had
Alan Berliner in his studio in the middle of the night, from his film Wide Awake, which airs on HBO. Courtesy of Alan Berliner Some people count sheep. Others meditate; some medicate. Alan Berliner has tried all three strategies and many more to fall asleep. In 2004, he began Wide Awake, which uses his personal battle with insomnia as a way into not only the nature and need for sleep (and the ramifications of the lack thereof), but also into the nature of his own creativity and productivity. Infusing the film with this dynamic psychological component is Berliner's own tortured relationship to
Making the case for the arts in our Nation's Capitol.
Despite growing up in Germany, I only discovered Werner Herzog relatively late. While I was aware of his work from early on, Lessons of Darkness was really the first Herzog film I ever watched. Now, having seen many of his other films, Lessons of Darkness--while not necessarily my all-time favorite Herzog film--still sticks in my mind as it so vividly introduced me to his particular brand of storytelling and approach to truth and fiction. Herzog directed Lessons of Darkness in 1991. Working in collaboration with the British cinematographer and co-producer Paul Berriff, he traveled to Kuwait to
Any filmmaker who sets out to make a documentary faces multiple challenges, not the least of which is a set of ethical issues inherent in the process. How to portray the subjects of the film? What to shoot and what not to shoot? How to edit so that the film is true to its topic and subjects, yet also works as a compelling story for the audiences? If a filmmaker is working in a foreign country or culture (or subculture), how to represent people with dignity and sensitivity to that place, time and experience? Most people not involved in filmmaking are not entirely aware of the power of the
Ribbon of Sand premiered in March at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History