Beyond Document: Essays on Nonfiction Film

Book Description

In essays by eleven of America's foremost writers, critics, and filmmakers, Beyond Document explores the full spectrum of nonfiction film and its creative possibilities. In addition to Charles Warren's broad introductory history of the genre, the book takes a close look at ethnographic films, cinema-verite, memoir and autobiography, docudramas, essay films, and newsreels, from classics like Night and Fog and Nanook of the North to more recent important work like Film about a Woman Who. . ., Harlan County, U.S.A., Sans Soleil, and Forest of Bliss.

Representations of reality are increasingly contested, in courtrooms and in Congress, as well as in art. Asking what the art of film can achieve, Helene Keyssar considers the history of nonfiction films by women; Jay Cantor discusses film investigations of the Holocaust; Patricia Hampl looks at how autobiographical films render experience into narrative; Robert Gardner questions the filmmaker's "impulse to preserve" ; and poet Susan Howe explores structures of mourning in several filmmakers. All the book's essays provide deeply felt understanding of documentary film, and of how we live with, an d within, images.

CONTRIBUTORS: Jay Cantor, Robert Gardener, Patricia Hampl, Maureen Howard, Susan Howe, Helene Keyssar, Phillip Lopatte, Vlada Petric, William Rothman, Charles Warren, Eliot Weinberger.

Customer Reviews:

worthwhile collection with a couple of "must reads".......2005-02-04

This is a very good collection of pieces on "non-fiction film" by writers who, for the most part, don't usually write about film. All of the essays are of high quality, but anybody interested in this sort of cinema shouldn't miss Jay Cantor's piece comparing Lantzman's "Shoah" with Ophul's "Hotel Terminus," Phillip Lopate's essay on the "essay film" (mostly concerning Chris Marker), and poet Susan Howe's amazing unclassifiable contribution, which she claims is "the best thing I ever wrote."

Hollywood Poolside: Classic Images of Legendary Stars

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Classic Hollywood

Hollywood Poolside: Classic Images of Legendary Stars
Frans Evenhuis , and Robert Landau
Manufacturer: Angel City Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1883318025

Customer Reviews:

Classic Hollywood.......2000-04-06

If you love Classic Hollywood Photos in Classic Hollywood style, then you will enjoy this book. It's really as simple as that. Another Coffee Table Conversation starter.

Documentary Film Classics (Cambridge Studies in Film)

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GOOD GUIDE FOR FILM STUDENTS

Documentary Film Classics (Cambridge Studies in Film)
William Rothman
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0521456819

Book Description

Documentary Film Classics offers close readings on a number of major films, such as Nanook of the North, Land Without Bread, Night and Fog, Chronicle of a Summer and Don't Look Back. Spanning the history of the documentary film tradition, William Rothman analyzes the philosophical and historical issues and themes implicit in these works. Designed to guide film students through the "texts" of a wide range of documentaries, his readings also focus on the achievements of these works as films per se.

Customer Reviews:

GOOD GUIDE FOR FILM STUDENTS.......2000-08-11

It is a usefull guide for especially film students. And if you are also interested about the mind of making documentaries, i strongly recommend you to get this book. You can find readings about on some main documentaries like 'Nanook of The North', 'Chronicle of a Summer'... I deeply interested in philosophical analysis of the examples of cinema verite. This is my special favourite interest of field on documentaries.

Fires Were Started -- (Bfi Film Classics)

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Sage introduction to one of Britain's greatest filmmakers.

Fires Were Started -- (Bfi Film Classics)
Brian Winston
Manufacturer: British Film Institute
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

Humphrey Jennings (1907-50) was perhaps the most gifted filmmaker of the British documentary movement. Involved in the Mass Observation project of the 1930s, Jennings' talent lay in picturing ordinary life in ways that were inventive yet authentic. Fires Were Started (1943) is his major achievement. A film about a day's work for a unit of the National Fire Service at the height of the blitz, it blends observation with fictional reconstruction to achieve a particularly poignant kind of propaganda.
Lindsay Anderson expressed the opinion of many commentators and viewers when he wrote in Sight and Sound (in a 1954 article reprinted as an appendix to this volume) that Jennings was "the only real poet the British cinema has yet produced." But how could a documentarist also be a poet?
This is one of the questions addressed by Brian Winston in his highly engaging study of Fires Were Started--a question that is particularly relevant today in the wake of the massive public controversies surrounding "faked" documentaries. For Winston documentary filmmaking is always "creatively treated actuality" and must be taken as such if it's to be properly valued and understood.

Customer Reviews:

Sage introduction to one of Britain's greatest filmmakers........2001-10-17

The most important and influential development in 1930s British cinema was the documentary movement, which was given the name by its chief practitioner, John Grierson, head of the General Post Office Film Unit. These documentaries weren't what we understand by the term today - rather than utilising fly-on-the-wall, observational techniques, these films were reconstructions of actual, 'typical' events, involving prior 'scientific' research and witness accounts, and often using scripted dialogue, sets and some kind of narrative structure.

Most of these films - dull, instructional, governmental works - are of little cinematic interest today. Only one figure emerges with claims to genius - Humphrey Jennings, Cambridge don, poet, painter, pioneering sociologist and organiser of the first British Surrealist exhibition. Jennings began work with Grierson's unit in the mid-30s, but was pre-eminent during the war, with a series of films that transcended their documentary or propaganda origins to magically capture that elusive British spirit. For this, he has been called 'The only real poet the British cinema yet produced'.

Although the most conventional of his films - a feature length drama narrating one day and night in the activities of the London Fire Brigade and the volunteer Auxiliary Fire Service during the Blitz of 1940-41 - 'Fires Were Started' is considered Jennings' masterpiece, and typical of his style. It mixes conventional 'documentary' elements, such as the training routine of the service or the structural workings of the system, with moments of pure epiphany - the flute-playing of a busker as the firemen go to work; a sing-song in the Recreation room before the exigencies of fire-fighting; the recital of poetry by Raleigh and Shakespeare. In this way, recognisable, flawed, 'ordinary' people take on an unsentimental, uncondescending, unforced stature.

Documentary theorist Brian Winston doesn't set out to question Jennings' canonical status, meticulously detailing and analysing the elements of his style instead. He puts the film in its historical context, as well as situating Jennings as both an idiosyncratic individual and as an often unwilling part of Grierson's documentary unit. He emphasises the collaborative input behind Jennings' work, in particular the contribution of editor Stewart McAllister, who achieved many of the films' most startling and evocative effects.

The details of the production are highly revealing of British attitudes at the time regarding censorship, as well as the urgent needs of censorship (e.g. the 'authentic', fruity language of the firemen had to be toned down; the important role of women is minimised; the bureaucratic bumbling of the system is ignored; the realities of the black market, conscientious objecting, shirking and other 'unpatriotic' activities are downplayed).

Most importantly, Winston distinguishes Jennings' form of propaganda, which depends on appeals to shared notions of British identity, rooted in history, culture and experience, to the brainwashing, mind-thumping of, say, Leni Riefenstahl.

He concludes with an impassioned defence of the film's 'documentary value' (and, ironically, this reconstruction has yielded some of the most famous 'real' images of the Blitz we have), in spite of failing to live up to the narrow, 'tendentious' criteria nowadays demanded of the form.

Book Description

On a summer morning in 1958 Esquire magazine assembled the greatest jazz luminaries of the day on a door stoop in Harlem to illustrate with living proof The Golden Age of Jazz. This portrait has since become the most famous, most recognized and most collected jazz picture ever. It also became the focus for the 1995 Oscar-nominated film A Great Day in Harlem. There has never been a book published about that day, and Great Jazz Day in Harlem features not only the now-immortalized image, but many more shots from the likes of Milt Hinton and Art Kane, and even Dizzy Gillespie.

A Modern Mosaic: Art and Modernism in the United States

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A Modern Mosaic: Art and Modernism in the United States
Townsend Ludington
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

The modernist movement has shaped our era as has no other. This insightful collection of original essays explores the impact of modernism on American culture and the ways in which modernism remains a key to understanding American art and society.

An impressive cast of scholars examines works and their creators across the whole spectrum of artistic expression--fiction and poetry, painting and sculpture, architecture, dance, photography, and film. In fresh and provocative essays they explore how the ideas of modernism helped shape such artistic expressions as the writings of the Harlem Renaissance, the paintings of Edward Hopper, New Deal public art projects, and George Antheil's Ballet MŽcanique. Extensive use of color and black-and-white illustrations results in a book that is as appealing visually as it is stimulating intellectually.

Book Description

Night Mail occupies an almost mythical place in the history of British cinema. It gave John Grierson's documentary school its first popular success and launched the brilliant composing career of Benjamin Britten. But it was also a corporate promo, commissioned for political effect to stave off Post Office privatization and to improve the morale of restless and underpaid postal workers.
Scott Anthony provides a lively appreciation of this vivid, witty, and often eccentric masterpiece. In doing so he uncovers the remarkable stories of civic-minded idealism, creative bitchiness and political trickery that underpin a classic of British documentary cinema.

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An exemplary study of one of cinema's most notorious works.
A great little book about a great big film

Olympia (Bfi Film Classics)
Taylor Downing
Manufacturer: British Film Institute
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0851703410

Book Description

Leni Riefenstahl's Olympia is one of the most controversial films ever made. Capitalizing on the success of Triumph of the Will, her propaganda film for the Nazi Party, Riefenstahl secured Hitler's approval for her grandiose plans to film the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The result was a work as notorious for its politics as celebrated for its aesthetic power. Taylor Downing provides an indispensable guide to this major work of film documentary. He gives the full story of how Riefenstahl negotiated relative independence from the Nazi authorities by pitting Hitler against Goebbels, the propaganda minister, who wanted complete control. Downing also gives a filmmaker's insights into the logistical and technical problems thrown up by managing a production which employed nearly forty cameramen to shoot 400,000 metres of film. He concludes that though its political effect was to glorify Nazi achievements, the film undeniably set the standard for Olympic filmmaking for the next five decades.

Customer Reviews:

An exemplary study of one of cinema's most notorious works........2001-10-18

In writing his monograph on 'Olympia', Leni Riefenstahl's epic record of the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, Taylor Downing has to deal with questions most film critics don't face. Planned to glorify the Nazi regime, this Olympiad was the most spectacular yet, with massive new stadia built, state-of-the-art facilities provided for spectators and athletes, and ceremonies of extravagant pomp orchestrated by Albert Speer. Riefenstahl had Hitler's personal blessing to make the film, and was given unprecedented financial and administrative support to expose all this Aryan glory to the world.

Downing does full justice to this troubling film. He does not avoid its propaganda basis, and the best bits of the book narrate the historical context in which the film was made (Downing is the TV producer of politic-historical programmes like 'The Cold War'), sifting through the self-justifying rewriting Riefenstahl has been doing for decades.

But Downing is scrupolously fair to the film as a piece of Olympic film-making (Downing has co-ordinated the TV coverage for two Games). He shows how in itself, the film is a very fair representation of the event, with the amazing achievements of the African American athletes as celebrated as the German victories (which I hadn't noticed, suggesting I brought my own prejudices to the movie), in spite of the Nazis' racial 'theories' (although he could have mentioned that Jesse Owens' miraculous Games, hailed here as a victory of democracy over fascism, went unnoticed at home, and that he was reduced to racing dogs and horses for a livelihood). Indeed, he makes the telling point that it was the Americans, in 1984, who were first reprimanded by the International Olympic Committee for the excessive chauvinism of their TV coverage.

He is full of admiration for Riefenstahl's technical ingenuity, offering a fascinating potted history of Olympic film-making to date, revealing just how revolutionary the German was. As a fellow practitioner, he brilliantly explains the logistics of the shoot, the breakthroughs of new cinematic technology, the importance of the director's collaborators, and, valuably, the meaning of the varied stylistic choices Riefenstahl made. It seems odd, however, that he doesn't interpret her relentless fetishising of the human body as itself fascist - maybe he's right.

However, he doesn't change my own feelings for the film, the overwhelming unhealthiness of all that health. In fact, the one film this book has made me ache to see is not the Riefenstahl classic it's about, but Kon Ichikawa's film of the 1964 Tokyo Olympiad, which sounds fantastic.

A great little book about a great big film.......1999-11-24

Taylor Downing's 'Olympia' is one of an impressive series (BFI Film Classics) of books on great movies. These books, although concise and small in format, are excellently researched, formatted, and most importantly, well written treatments of film classics.

Downing's book provides a review of Riefenstahl's career leading up to the filming of 'Olympia', necessary background information to understand both her technical and artistic prowess as they reach the screen in this great documentary film. For those familiar primarily with 'Triumph of the Will', this portion of the book is particularly interesting.

The creative, fiscal, and technical challenges the director faced in bringing the 1936 games to the screen are discussed in fascinating detail. For those who see Riefenstahl as a puppet of the Nazi progpaganda machine, her run-ins with Goering are illuminative. The chapter on the 'plot' and aesthetics of the film are also very well-written and are a good overview for those who have not yet seen this groundbreaking sports documentary.

An appendix noting the different versions of the film presently in circulation would be welcome in the next edition of this fine book.

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Current Thoughts in Musicology (Symposia in the arts and the humanities)
J.W. Grubbs
Manufacturer: University of Texas Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0292710178

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Current Thought in Musicology
John W. Grubbs
Manufacturer: University of Texas Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000ORWQFG

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Current Thought in Musicology (Symposia in the Arts and the Humanities Ser., No. 4)
John W. (editor) Grubbs
Manufacturer: University of Texas Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NEIKQY

Book Description

BradyGames' Viewtiful Joe 2 Official Strategy Guide includes:

Win the Award for Best Action!: navigate every scene and beat every challenge with style by using our script.
Direct the Special FX!: Learn how to use Joe and Silvia's powers to fast-forward, slo-mo, and even replay moves for devastating results.
Become #1 at the Box Office!: Use our in-depth strategy to get a V rating in every challenge and beat down every boss.
Unlock Movie Magic!: Uncover the Viewtiful secrets within the game!

Platform: PlayStation 2 and GameCube
Genre: Action/Adventure
This product is available for sale in North America only.

Viewtiful Joe(tm) Official Strategy Guide For PS2

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Viewtiful Joe: Good game but a good guide?

Viewtiful Joe(tm) Official Strategy Guide For PS2
Doug Walsh
Manufacturer: BRADY GAMES
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0744004020

Book Description

BradyGames' Viewtiful Joe includes the following:

COMPLETE ALL SEVEN EPISODES! A blow-by-blow walkthrough to smacking every foe, nabbing the most Film Canisters, and gobbling enough Cheeseburgers to finish Viewtifully with the maximum Bonus.

BEAT THE BADDIES OF MOVIE LAND! A complete rundown of the enemies and bosses in the game, along with foolproof tactics for defeating them.

SCORE VIEWTIFULLY! Detailed coverage of the scoring system for each scene, and how to achieve a Viewtiful Ranking every time!

UNLOCK SECRETS! Hidden characters and special gameplay modes!

Customer Reviews:

Viewtiful Joe: Good game but a good guide?.......2003-11-08

I recently picked up this guide to compliment my purchase of the game Viewtiful Joe and this is what I think of it. As I first opened it I noticed it is very colorful which is a great thing and the guide was very helpful. The only cons are that it is very thin with 112 pages. I was dissapointed at how short the secrets section was though. Overall, I'd say any Joe fan that needs help to beat that hard boss or just to read it for fun should pick it up because it is very colorful and detailed.

Viewtiful Joe(tm) Red Hot Rumble / Viewtiful Joe(tm) Double Trouble Offi (Official Strategy Guides (Bradygames))

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Viewtiful Joe(tm) Red Hot Rumble / Viewtiful Joe(tm) Double Trouble Offi (Official Strategy Guides (Bradygames))
BradyGames
Manufacturer: BRADY GAMES
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0744005620

Book Description

BradyGames’ Viewtiful Joe Red Hot Rumble/Viewtiful Joe Double Trouble Official Strategy Guide includes the following:

Complete strategy for both games.
Viewtiful Joe Red Hot Rumble coverage includes character move lists, items and power up lists.
Viewtiful Joe Double Trouble coverage features a comprehensive walkthrough, tips on how to use character powers, expert boss strategies and more!
Game secrets uncovered!

Platform: GameCube and Nintendo DS

Genre: Action/Adventure

This product is available for sale in North America only.

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If you really want to make money in the financial service ind.

Excellent Practice Management Tool

How To Build a Financial Services Powerhouse

Want To Launch Your Business - Read This Book!

Some pretty good ideas

Building Your Multi-Million Dollar Practice: 8 Success Strategies of Top Producing Advisors
Peter Vessenes , and Katherine Vessenes
Manufacturer: Kaplan Business
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Tested in the Trenches: A 9-Step Plan for Building and Sustaining a Million-Dollar Financial Services Practice

Questions Great Financial Advisors Ask... and Investors Need to Know

Storyselling for Financial Advisors : How Top Producers Sell

Effort-Less Marketing for Financial Advisors

Guerrilla Marketing for Financial Advisors

ASIN: 1419515055
Release Date: 2005-05-23

Book Description

Increase income, maximize valuation, eliminate stress. For more than 20 years, financial experts Peter and Katherine Vessenes have helped brokers, dealers, registered investment advisors, and financial service providers develop more profitable businesses. Unlike other works on financial management, which distill the best practices of superstars, this book shares the authors’ insights gleaned from their personal experiences, analysis, and consultation with the nation’s most prestigious companies. According to the Vesseneses, there are eight prosperity factors that, when aligned, lead to powerful practice management and a No-Sell Sale™, a phrase coined to mean carefully lining up all the key aspects of your sales, marketing, and support systems to create an easy, effortless sale. The result for the advisor? Increased income, maximized valuation, and significantly reduced stress. Highlights Specific chapters detail eight prosperity factors, guaranteed to empower advisors: 1. A team-based (not star-based) business 2. Strategic planning 3. Fiscal and asset management 4. A marketing system 5. Operations 6. Highly effective support staff 7. A defined sales system (the No-Sell Sale™ system) 8. Solid compliance systems Building Your Multi-Million-Dollar Practice delivers breakthrough thinking on practice management, making it the essential tool for every advisor’s office.

Customer Reviews:

If you really want to make money in the financial service ind........2007-05-24

Write a book marketed towards struggling financial advisors which is just a commercial for your registered/trademarked strategies and coaching services. The authors should have given the book away rather than trying to disguise their services as a way to build a multi million dollar advisory business. Neither author has any experience as financial advisor. There are better books written by actual advisors in the business.

Excellent Practice Management Tool.......2006-11-10

This book was one I purchased only on the off chance that it would help build a practice as the title is a little sensational. However this book is helpful for all financial planning practices regardless of size and stage of development.

How To Build a Financial Services Powerhouse.......2006-07-03

Katherine and Peter Vessenes have a unique perspective on how to build a top financial services practice today. With the current emphasis on efficiency in the workplace, the Vessenes take this to another level for financial professionals. The combination of practical and theoretical suggestions make this a must read for any financial professional who wants to supercharge their practice. This reader found the numerous stories of practitioners around the country of particular interest. It would be even more helpful if the authors would divulge who the stories referenced rather than using imaginary names. Despite this, the book was very well written with various sections authored by one or the other of the Vessenes. Their insight into the financial services industry is very refreshing.

Want To Launch Your Business - Read This Book!.......2006-01-21

I work with financial advisors for a living and I have seen some that are successful and many that are not. This book will help any advisor who is struggling to take off, or any advisor looking to take their business to another level. The book is full of practical advice that you can use immediately. Don't kick yourself tomorrow for not buying this book today!

Some pretty good ideas.......2005-09-20

Like many books that promise to "take you to the next level" this one is just slightly disappointing. Don't get me wrong, the book is pretty darn good but not jammed with all kinds of breakthrough ideas that nobody's ever presented before (as some reviewers claim). The book focuses on building a team atmosphere and moving away from a business that is based solely on one person; "the star". The book talks about the "No Sell-Sale"TM that is supposed to help you transform prospects into clients seamlessly. It's not bad but it's not great either. It pretty much reminds me of the training I received as an entry level life insurance salesperson. The key to the system is to generate referrals and the book has some good advice on the subject. The book does provide a vast appendix filled with template letters and flowcharts. It seems like I'm being a little harsh so let me finish by saying that I would still recommend this book to any financial advisor. There are plenty of ideas to warrant the very small purchase price. In fact you'd have to be pretty high on yourself not to get some great stuff out of this effort.

Building Your Multi-million Dollar Practice: 8 Success Strategies of Top Producing Advisors

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Building Your Multi-million Dollar Practice: 8 Success Strategies of Top Producing Advisors
Peter Vessenes
Manufacturer: Kaplan Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000N781E2

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