'Show Us Life': Towards a History and Aesthetics of the Committed Documentary

by Thomas Waugh

This anthology of 25 articles is both historical and cross- cultural, covering the pioneering period of the twenties and thirties and the dynamic growth of committed documentary since the sixties; recent feminist initiatives in North America and Britain; committed documentary in the Third World over the last 25 years; the use of film within the American 'New Left;' and the particular problematic of radical film distribution. Contributors include such well-known activists and scholars as Joan Braderman, Julianne Burton, Guy Hennebelle, John Hess, Claire Johnstone, E. Ann Kaplan, Chuck Kleinhans, Julia Lesage, Steve Neale, Bill Nichols, Anand Patwardhan, and Paul Willemen. Filmmakers and collectives discussed include Dziga Vertov, Joris Ivens, Jean Renoir, Frontier Films, Newsreel, Chris Marker, Barbara Kopple, JoAnn Elam, Michelle Citron, Shinsuke Ogawa, Fernando Birri, Patricio Guzman, Santiago Alvarez, Fernando Solanas, Jean-Luc Godard, Anand Patwardhan, and the Nicaraguan Studio 'Incine.'

Genres: Film

536 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1989

About the author

Thomas Waugh is Concordia University Research Chair in Sexual Representation and in Documentary in Montreal, Canada. In addition to writing, he loves teaching, programming, swimming, cycling, travelling in India and sweating at Montreal's ninety-year-old community steambath.