Issue 22
Notebook

What do we film now? Features of the documentary film. A study through Michael Moore's work

Manuel de la Fuente Soler
Universitat de València
Bio

Published 2016-07-30

Keywords

  • Documentary,
  • Satire,
  • Michael Moore,
  • Jack Grierson,
  • McDocumentary.

Abstract

Michael Moore’s films are a paradigmatic case of the contemporary documentary. They are a form of political action refusing the fallacy of objectivity in the documentary genre, by explicitly expressing the opinion and goals of the filmmaker, who has become the main character. In his films, Moore use a range of sources, from images and recordings from his personal archive to TV news programmes, in order to bring out the emotion of the audience and make the spectator search his/her own responsiveness at the end of the screening. Moore’s films are highly influenced by the documentary films of Jack Grierson and Joris Ivens, on the one hand, and the satire of the American Comedians of the 60s, on the other. The result is a filmography standing against the American political right-wing, creating a model still in force.

References

<p>Benson, Thomas W.; Snee, Brian J. <em>et alli. </em>(2008). <em>The Rhetoric of the New Political Documentary</em>. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.<br>
Benson, Thomas W.; Snee, Brian J. (2015). <em>Michael Moore and the Rhetoric of Documentary</em>. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.<br>
Brodey, Inger S. B. (2014). The Power of Memory and the Memory of Power. En D. LaRocca (2015). <em>The Philosophy of War Films </em>(pp. 287-310). Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky.<br>
Bronfen, Elisabeth (2012). <em>Specters of War. Hollywood&rsquo;s Engagement with Military Conflict</em>. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.<br>
Day, Amber (2011). <em>Satire and Dissent.. Interventions in Contemporary Political Debate</em>. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.<br>
De la Fuente, Manuel (2012). La cultura del videoclip y el cine como respuesta: las películas de Frank Zappa en la revolución conservadora. <em>L&rsquo;Atalante</em>, 12, 28-35.<br>
De la Fuente, Manuel (2014). <em>Madrid. Visiones cinematográficas de los años 1950 a los años 2000</em>. Neuilly: Atlande.<br>
Hogarth, David (2006). <em>Realer than Reel. Global Directions in Documentary</em>. Austin: University of Texas Press.<br>
Ivens, Joris (1969). <em>The Camera and I</em>. Nueva York: International Publishers.<br>
Moore, Michael (2012). <em>Cuidado conmigo</em>. Barcelona: Ediciones B.<br>
Nichols, Bill (1997). <em>La representación de la realidad</em>. Barcelona: Paidós.<br>
Nichols, Bill (2001). <em>Introduction to Documentary</em>. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.<br>
Oumano, Elena (2011). <em>Cinema Today. A Conversation with Thirty-nine Filmmakers from around the World</em>. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.<br>
Parry-Giles, Shawn y Parry-Giles, Trevor (2008). Documentary Dialectics and the Limits of Commodified Dissent in <em>Fahrenkeit 9/11</em>. En T. Benson, Thomas W. <em>et al. </em>(2008). <em>The Rhetoric of the New Political Documentary </em>(pp. 24-53). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.<br>
Romaguera, Joaquim y Alsina, Homero (eds.) (1993). <em>Textos y manifiestos del cine. Estética. Escuelas. Movimimientos. Disciplinas. Innovaciones</em>. Madrid: Cátedra.<br>
Sachleben, Mark (2014). <em>World Politics on Screen</em>. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky.<br>
Waugh, Thomas (2011). <em>The Right to Play Oneself. Looking Back on Documentary Film</em>. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.</p>