TL;DRAbstract
DOCUMENTARY” was a new word in the 1930s, coined by the film critic John Grierson in 1926. The strongest intentions of Depression-era documentary expression were simply to dramatize immediate political agendas, to heighten awareness and intensify discussion of social ills. Most documentary writers assumed that their writing might bring readers a direct experience of persecution, poverty, or oppression. Much of this outpouring thus promoted the position that documentary provided a transparent lens onto the real, rather than opaque representations. This claim was crucial to the documentary's immediate political effectiveness, and yet it masked deeper problems. But there were other documentarians, among them John Dos Passos and James Agee, who suspected or realized that this assumption was false.
Chat with Paper
AI Agents for this Paper
DOCUMENTARY” was a new word in the 1930s, coined by the film critic John Grierson in 1926. The strongest intentions of Depression-era documentary expression were simply to dramatize immediate political agendas, to heighten awareness and intensify discussion of social ills. Most documentary writers assumed that their writing might bring readers a direct experience of persecution, poverty, or oppression. Much of this outpouring thus promoted the position that documentary provided a transparent lens onto the real, rather than opaque representations. This claim was crucial to the documentary's immediate political effectiveness, and yet it masked deeper problems. But there were other documentarians, among them John Dos Passos and James Agee, who suspected or realized that this assumption was false.
Keywords
Chat
Click to start Chat