The right to play oneself: looking back on documentary film

Description

Preface : of pulses, panaceas, and parallel universes -- Why documentary filmmakers keep trying to change the world, or why people changing the world keep making documentaries (1984) -- Dziga Vertov, 1930s populism, and Three songs of Lenin (1975) -- Bread, water, blood, rifles, planes : documentary imagery of the Spanish Civil War from the North American Popular Front (1990) -- Acting to play oneself : performance in documentary (1990) -- Beyond Vøritø : Emile de Antonio (1977) -- Sufficient virtue, necessary artistry : the shifting challenges of revolutionary documentary history (2006-08) -- Lesbian and gay documentary : minority self-imaging, oppositional film practice, and the question of image ethics (1984) -- Walking on tippy toes : lesbian and gay liberation documentary of the post-stonewall period (1997) -- "Words of command" : cultural and political inflections of direct cinema in Indian independent documentary (1990) -- Joris Ivens and the legacy of committed documentary (1999).;This text collects Thomas Waugh's essays on the politics, history, and aesthetics of documentary film, written between 1974 and 2008. The title reflects the book's theme of the political potential of documentary for representing the democratic performance of citizens and artists.