The Spaces Between Grassroots Documentary ... - Ezra Winton

Recommendations

Info

production, exhibition and distribution) in the “Hollywood” system, and the “collaborative” process he sees occurring in the independent sector. One thing is certain: distribution and exhibition are collapsing into each other, whether it is facilitated (or forced) by multinationals vertically integrating their media systems, technological advances such as direct web-broadcast applications and platforms (such as Miro), or grassroots organizers procuring films, showing them in public spaces, and sharing the work within networks. Later in this thesis, a filmmaker and activist describes moving around the USA and Canada with canisters of film in order to show “community” screenings. Whether it is digits, discs or tape, the movement and sharing of cinema, including documentary, is revealed in the spaces explored in the following pages. <strong>The</strong> recent ascension of documentary films into the popular psyche of the West as well as into global commercial markets is causing increased attention from the popular press and academics from disciplines as disparate as cinema studies and macroeconomics, (with an emergent coterie of legal-minded writers concerned with “risk” and “security” around digital considerations). Rare exceptions to the fiction- dominated box office rulebook are continuously trotted out, put on display and celebrated as proof of the genre’s movement toward the mainstream. Films like Bowling for Columbine (2004), March of the Penguins (2005), Touching the Void (2004), and more recently, Sicko (2007) are exampled as the champion invaders into (fiction) fortress Hollywood. However, one need only examine a top-grossing documentaries list for a minute to discover that by sixth place the film hails from 1991, perhaps not a strong endorsement for evidence of a plethora of documentary box office hits in the last decade. 4
Complimenting the celebration of exceptions at the box office there exist numerous studies looking at the production and/or artistic/aesthetic aspects of the genre, amounting to a significant gap in the research concerning distribution and exhibition, the area of focus of this inquiry. By closing this gap in our understanding of the socio- political, economic and cultural significance of diverse documentary distribution/exhibition practices, this thesis aims to develop not only a comprehension of ‘alternative’ and ‘grassroots’ spaces and how they are constructed as interlocutors in the ‘democracy project,’ but also to contribute research that connects disparate theories around hegemony and democracy with documentary. Democracy itself is a hotly contested term, commonly associated with “rights and equality” and “collective decision-making processes” (Beetham, 2005, p.2). I will avoid wading into the political science and philosophy debates, and instead elicit a communication scholar’s problematic description: “Democracy is a particular manner of constituting the various practices of judgment and action that together make up politics.” (Barney, 2005, p. 8) What is sticky in Barney’s equation is the word particular, but it is also where he has left room to maneuver, making this ‘definition’ an apt springboard for a discussion of democratic principles and practices as they relate to documentary. <strong>The</strong> particular manner or vision/theory of democracy that I am interested in is what Chantal Mouffe calls “deliberative democracy” or “agonistic pluralism,” and entails positivist recognition of deep-seated differences between groups in society. (Mouffe, 2005, p.12) Mouffe believes that traditional liberal democratic theory has led society down a delusional path of false-reconciliation between antagonistic factions, and in turn, posits 5
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: p.167) Yet what brings Wintonick an
Page 11 and 12: somewhere. Documentaries make up a
Page 13 and 14: ealm of the marginalized, and furth
Page 15 and 16: short, there is a clear and urgent
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
Page 25 and 26: grassroots distribution and exhibit
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
Page 51 and 52: adicalizing opposition or counterpo
Page 53 and 54: screenings can provide opportunity
Page 55 and 56: authors have chosen to survey the g
Page 57 and 58: demonstrative examples of the acade
Page 59 and 60:
conflict(s) as a core of contestati
Page 61 and 62:
consumer-over-citizen modeled (Mouf
Page 63 and 64:
CHAPTER III - HISTORICAL CONTEXT -
Page 65 and 66:
vis the ‘work’ of politicians,
Page 67 and 68:
These authors are introducing the t
Page 69 and 70:
articulations that illustrate the i
Page 71 and 72:
indexes is a revealing exercise, in
Page 73 and 74:
the lens of inequity, where cultura
Page 75 and 76:
of the 20 th Century, was the agent
Page 77 and 78:
As mentioned, d/e has been at the h
Page 79 and 80:
the urban counterpart to the film c
Page 81 and 82:
artist-driven and dedicates itself
Page 83 and 84:
spaces and practices that this thes
Page 85 and 86:
formations (in Dorland’s case) or
Page 87 and 88:
irrelevancy. The social movements s
Page 89 and 90:
in communities for citizen’s acti
Page 91 and 92:
for CFC works was remarkably relaxe
Page 93 and 94:
of documentary - on the oppression
Page 95 and 96:
scholar concerned with progressive
Page 97 and 98:
film industry, while texts that beg
Page 99 and 100:
Montreal-based non-profit übercult
Page 101 and 102:
cinemas, where managers and program
Page 103 and 104:
journalist still stationed in Haiti
Page 105 and 106:
You are on Indian Land and Mike Mit
Page 107 and 108:
Achbar settled down on to the grass
Page 109 and 110:
the report continues, the authors a
Page 111 and 112:
of grassroots I think of an organiz
Page 113 and 114:
spaces through grassroots practices
Page 115 and 116:
Haynes quickly realized there was a
Page 117 and 118:
documentaries in Canada. Haynes add
Page 119 and 120:
people experience the screenings, a
Page 121 and 122:
like Charlottetown, PEI. The initia
Page 123 and 124:
Canadian, and is doing it by way of
Page 125 and 126:
community members who make up the K
Page 127 and 128:
That said, AMC is paying more atten
Page 129 and 130:
example, Achbar relates to me that
Page 131 and 132:
consumers. What I have argued in th
Page 133 and 134:
dominant veneers in culture, so tha
Page 135 and 136:
that build counterpublics with the
Page 137 and 138:
Nos voisons les hommes (USA - Over
Page 139 and 140:
APPENDIX B Sample Interview Questio
Page 141 and 142:
I HAVE CAREFULLY STUDIED THE ABOVE
Page 143 and 144:
Beetham, David. Democracy: A Beginn
Page 145 and 146:
Gramsci, Antonio. Selections from C
Page 147 and 148:
Magder, Ted. Canada’s Hollywood:
Page 149 and 150:
Rennie, Ellie. Community Media: A G
Page 151 and 152:
Yudice, George. “The Privatizatio
show all

The Spaces Between Grassroots Documentary ... - Ezra Winton

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?