The Essay Film After Fact and Fiction

Description

Nora M. Alter reveals the essay film to be a hybrid genre that fuses the categories of feature, art, and documentary film. Like its literary predecessor, the essay film draws on a variety of forms and approaches; in the process, it fundamentally alters the shape of cinema. The Essay Film After Fact and Fiction locates the genre’s origins in early silent cinema and follows its transformation with the advent of sound, its legitimation in the postwar period, and its multifaceted development at the turn of the millennium. In addition to exploring the broader history of the essay film, Alter addresses the innovative ways contemporary artists such as Martha Rosler, Isaac Julien, Harun Farocki, John Akomfrah, and Hito Steyerl have taken up the essay film in their work. Table of Contents ......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 10 Introduction......Page 16 1. Beginnings ......Page 46 2. Speaking Essays or Interruptions......Page 72 3. The Essay Film as Archive and Repository of Memories......Page 106 4. The Essay Film as the Fourth Estate ......Page 158 5. The Artist Essay: Expanding the Field and the Turn to Video ......Page 210 6. New Migrations: Third Cinema and the Essay Film ......Page 254 7. Beyond the Cinematic Screen: Installations and the Internet ......Page 304 Notes ......Page 338 Bibliography ......Page 374 Index ......Page 400