The Spaces Between Grassroots Documentary ... - Ezra Winton

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Indeed, it is a chief contention of this book that an essential location at which discourses of global audiences are being worked out and applied – one that has been overlooked by the swelling industry of scholarly work on global culture – is the motion picture theatre. (Ibid) While Acland has identified a scholarly gap in work looking at one aspect of commercial- oriented cinema practices, his work remains professionally engaged and wholly concerned with the commercial industry and not grassroots-fuelled democracy. Linking democracy with documentary is not a new idea, but forwarding documentary distribution/exhibition spaces and practices as a research focus is a fresh perspective that only a handful of academics have taken to task recently. Among the few is Julia Knight, who is currently the head researcher of an enormous project titled “Independent Film and Video Distribution in the UK During the 1980s and 1990s.” She writes: Indeed, film and video distribution generally is a neglected field of academic study, and with regard to independent film and video distribution specifically it has produced only a handful of articles: there has been no indepth study of distribution practices across the sector. (2007, project website) While Knight’s research is mostly concerned with UK practices, the above contention is applicable to Canada as well, where research tends to follow international trends: inquiries have been concerned primarily with the production end of documentary practices, and when distribution/exhibition has been forwarded, the focus has been on the American studio system and Hollywood’s vertical integration with Canada’s commercial film industry. When documentaries have been specifically targeted for academic discussion, an emphasis on populism, commercial success, and content or textual analysis have continued to dominate. (Rosenthal and Corner, 2005; Ellis and McLane, 2005) In 10
short, there is a clear and urgent need for sustained research into documentary distribution and exhibition practices outside of the commercial market. My research interests lie with the alternative spaces outside of commercial spaces and in order to discuss and interrogate them, certain language parameters must be established. At the heart of this inquiry is a discussion that addresses the residue of an ill- conceived dichotomy between oft-labeled ‘alternative media’ and ‘mainstream media.’ I would like to put forward a line of thinking for disentanglement whereby this perceived binary is re-conceived as a continuum with points of reference differentiated by disparate processes, goals and results. Media practices that are primarily concerned with the commercial – that is to say, with elements associated with increasing profit margins by delivering audiences to advertisers, distribution outlets, exhibition spaces and ancillary markets – I am describing as commercially-oriented practices and spaces. <strong>The</strong> commercial signifier is similar to the cultural moniker ‘mainstream’, but implies a fundamental ideological difference with regard to economic orientation, rather than simply delineating an accepted (and even celebrated) cultural dominance that the word ‘mainstream’ can narrowly denote. Community-oriented media practices are concerned with engendering social participation, facilitating and/or producing the stories of marginalized and oppressed populations, and creating both discursive and physical spaces where such ‘counternarratives’ (Bhabha, 1994) can be shared and debated in an accessible, inclusive and responsive environment. Through activities carried out in these spaces outside of commercial/mainstream spaces, counterpublics are formed that ultimately contribute to 11
Page 1 and 2: The Spaces Between Grassroots Docum
Page 3 and 4: iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis wou
Page 5 and 6: CHAPTER I HOT DOCUMENTARIES IN COOL
Page 7 and 8: p.167) Yet what brings Wintonick an
Page 9 and 10: Complimenting the celebration of ex
Page 11 and 12: somewhere. Documentaries make up a
Page 13: ealm of the marginalized, and furth
Page 17 and 18: discussion and treats them as unnat
Page 19 and 20: content” (Ibid, p.3) reminiscent
Page 21 and 22: examines and exposes these phenomen
Page 23 and 24: some years working as an activist a
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Page 27 and 28: the discursive and physical multipl
Page 29 and 30: attention in some areas, such as te
Page 31 and 32: writes: “The strongest barrier to
Page 33 and 34: its heyday 4 . Stuart Hall, Richard
Page 35 and 36: large multinational corporations wh
Page 37 and 38: it is a complex process of negotiat
Page 39 and 40: globally harmonized by a populist c
Page 41 and 42: (counterpublics) - such is the way
Page 43 and 44: She is concerned with the counter-h
Page 45 and 46: operating with an assumption that t
Page 47 and 48: film through the public sphere.”
Page 49 and 50: commercial exhibition sites, and fu
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Page 55 and 56: authors have chosen to survey the g
Page 57 and 58: demonstrative examples of the acade
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Page 61 and 62: consumer-over-citizen modeled (Mouf
Page 63 and 64: CHAPTER III - HISTORICAL CONTEXT -
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vis the ‘work’ of politicians,
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These authors are introducing the t
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articulations that illustrate the i
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indexes is a revealing exercise, in
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the lens of inequity, where cultura
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of the 20 th Century, was the agent
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As mentioned, d/e has been at the h
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the urban counterpart to the film c
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artist-driven and dedicates itself
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spaces and practices that this thes
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formations (in Dorland’s case) or
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irrelevancy. The social movements s
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in communities for citizen’s acti
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for CFC works was remarkably relaxe
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of documentary - on the oppression
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scholar concerned with progressive
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film industry, while texts that beg
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Montreal-based non-profit übercult
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cinemas, where managers and program
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journalist still stationed in Haiti
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You are on Indian Land and Mike Mit
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Achbar settled down on to the grass
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the report continues, the authors a
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of grassroots I think of an organiz
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spaces through grassroots practices
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Haynes quickly realized there was a
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documentaries in Canada. Haynes add
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people experience the screenings, a
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like Charlottetown, PEI. The initia
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Canadian, and is doing it by way of
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community members who make up the K
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That said, AMC is paying more atten
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example, Achbar relates to me that
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consumers. What I have argued in th
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dominant veneers in culture, so tha
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that build counterpublics with the
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Nos voisons les hommes (USA - Over
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APPENDIX B Sample Interview Questio
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I HAVE CAREFULLY STUDIED THE ABOVE
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Beetham, David. Democracy: A Beginn
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Gramsci, Antonio. Selections from C
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Magder, Ted. Canada’s Hollywood:
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Rennie, Ellie. Community Media: A G
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Yudice, George. “The Privatizatio
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The Spaces Between Grassroots Documentary ... - Ezra Winton

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