Synopses & Reviews
and#147;How does Scott MacDonald do it? Every couple of years he produces a work so significant that it would have taken any other scholar at least a decade to produce. This, his newest opus, extends the spatial approach to cinema he pioneered in
The Garden in the Machine, but does so by focusing on documentary rather the avant-garde. His exploration of the interlaced traditions of ethnographic and personal documentary filmmaking in the Boston area in the light of American Pragmatismand#8217;s commitment to the examination of lived experience is a remarkable addition to his already remarkable oeuvre.and#8221; and#150; David E. James, author of
The Most Typical Avant-Garde: History and Geography of Minor Cinemas in Los Angeles"[American Ethnographic Film and Personal Documentary] is a superbly original and informative work that takes as its project the creation of a cognitive map of a significant and geographically specific area within the larger field of independent documentary filmmaking. It is fascinating to follow the book's careful articulation of the network of teachers and students, and the institutions where they and their films flourished. This book establishes a new path for documentary studies within a cultural landscape that widens to spatial media studies and beyond.and#8221;and#150; Janet Walker, author of Trauma Cinema: Documenting Incest and the Holocaust
Review
"Inestimable addition to the film-studies canon." 10 Best Film-Studies Books of 2013.
Review
"Intimacy is rarely a word connected to published academic work, and yet I can't think of a better word to distinguish MacDonald's thoroughly researched and rigorously annotated tome from all previous books I've reviewed on these pages."
Synopsis
American Ethnographic Film and Personal Documentary is a critical history of American filmmakers crucial to the development of ethnographic film and personal documentary. The Boston and Cambridge area is notable for nurturing these approaches to documentary film via institutions such as the MIT Film Section and the Film Study Center, the Carpenter Center and the Visual and Environmental Studies Department at Harvard. Scott MacDonald uses pragmatismand#8217;s focus on empirical experience as a basis for measuring the groundbreaking achievements of such influential filmmakers as John Marshall, Robert Gardner, Timothy Asch, Ed Pincus, Miriam Weinstein, Alfred Guzzetti, Ross McElwee, Robb Moss, Nina Davenport, Steve Ascher and Jeanne Jordan, Michel Negroponte, John Gianvito, Alexander Olch, Amie Siegel, Ilisa Barbash, and Lucien Castaing-Taylor. By exploring the cinematic, personal, and professional relationships between these accomplished filmmakers, MacDonald shows how a pioneering, engaged, and uniquely cosmopolitan approach to documentary developed over the past half century.
About the Author
Scott MacDonald teaches film history at Hamilton College and Harvard University and in 2011 was named an Academy Scholar by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He is the author of many books for UC Press, most recently
Adventures in Perception: Cinema as Exploration (2009).
Table of Contents
Introductionand#160; A Tentative Overview of Boston-Area Documentary Filmmaking and#149; Ethnographic Film and Personal Documentary and#149; Pragmatism: Learning from Experience and#149; The Mission of American Ethnographic Film and Personal Documentary: The Cambridge Turn and#149; Subjects for Further Research and#149; Acknowledgments
1. Lorna and John Marshalland#160;
Beginnings: Lorna Marshall and First Film and#149; John Marshall: The Hunters and#149; Idylls of the !Kung and#149; Pedagogy and#149; Expulsion from Eden: Bitter Melons and N!ai, the Story of a !Kung Woman and#149; The Pittsburgh Police Films and Brakhageand#8217;s Eyes and#149; Putting Down the Camera and Picking Up the Shovel and#149; The Road Taken: A Kalahari Family and#149; A Process in Time
2. Robert Gardnerand#160;
East Coast/West Coast: Early Experiments and#149; Gardner and the Marshalls and#149; Dead Birds and#149; The Experience of Filmmaking as Thought Process and#149; Robert Fulton: Realityand#8217;s Invisibleand#151;and#147;Serious Playing Aroundand#8221; and#149; Screening Room: Midnight Movies and#149; City Symphony: Forest of Bliss and#149; The Return of the Repressed: Ika Hands and#149; Still Journeying On: Unfinished Examinations of a Life and#149; Studio7Arts: Sharon Lockhartand#8217;s Double Tide and Robert Fenzand#8217;s Correspondence
3. Timothy Aschand#160;
Dodoth Morning and the Ethnographic Deadpan and#149; Asch and the Yanomamo and#149; The Ax Fight
4. Ed Pincus and the Emergence of Personal Documentaryand#160;
The Miriam Weinstein Quartet and Richard P. Rogersand#8217;s Elephants: Fragments of an Argument and#149; Ed Pincusand#8217;s Diaries (1971and#150;1976) and#149; Alfred Guzzetti: Family Portrait Sittings and#149; Guzzetti: Itand#8217;s a Small World and#149; Guzzetti: Time Exposure
5. Alfred Guzzetti and Personal Cinemaand#160;
Air and#149; Experimental Video: and#147;Language Lessonsand#8221; and#149; Scylla and Charybdis and#149; Still Point
6. Ross McElweeand#160;
Finding a Muse: Charleen and#149; Finding a Voice: Ann Schaetzeland#8217;s Breaking and Entering and McElweeand#8217;s Backyard and#149; Dopplegand#228;nger: Shermanand#8217;s March and#149; Nesting Dolls: Time Indefinite and#149; On the Road Again: Six Oand#8217;Clock News and#149; Occupational Hazards: Bright Leaves and#149; Orpheus: In Paraguay and Photographic Memory
7. Robb Mossand#160;
Riverdogs: A Possible Eden and#149; The Tourist: and#147;Freelance Editingand#8221; and#149; Voyage of Life: The Same River Twice
8. Panorama: Other Approaches to Personal Documentaryand#160;
Steve Ascher and Jeanne Jordan: Families in Transition and#149; Michel Negroponte: Getting Involved and#149; Leacock and Lalonde and#149; The Subject Rebels: Nina Davenportand#8217;s Films and Ed Pincus and Lucia Smalland#8217;s The Axe in the Attic and#149; The Political Is the Personal: John Gianvitoand#8217;s Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind and Jeff Daniel Silvaand#8217;s Balkan Rhapsodies and#149; Alexander Olchand#8217;s The Windmill Movie: and#147;This Little Sand#233;ance of Flickering Lightand#8221; and#149; Amie Siegeland#8217;s DDR/DDR
9. Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Sensory Ethnographyand#160;
Ilisa Barbash, Lucien Castaing-Taylor, and Sweetgrass and#149; and#147;Sheepleand#8221;: Castaing-Taylorand#8217;s Audio-Video Installations and#149; The Sensory Ethnography Lab: J. P. Sniadecki, Stephanie Spray, Vand#233;rand#233;na Paravel, and Leviathan
Epilogueand#160;
Appendix: Film Sourcesand#160;
Notesand#160;
Index