ROUND UP
What makes a documentary durable?
Pat Aufderheide
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CILECT North America's Docu-Day conference opened at American University with a manifesto-like volley from professor emeritus and field leader Michael Rabiger, who asked, “What makes a documentary durable?” His answer: Film art, featuring creative use of elements ranging from cinematography, sound, and editing, bringing to viewers “the meaning and weight of experience.”
Too often, he argued, film professors let students believe that documentaries, unlike fiction films, are primarily about communicating ideas, a branch of journalism, rather than an artform that brings viewers empathically into someone else’s experience. Read more...
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