Michael Moore and the Rhetoric of Documentary

Michael Moore and the Rhetoric of Documentary PDF Author: Thomas W Benson
Publisher: SIU Press
ISBN: 0809334089
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
Not afraid to tackle provocative topics in American culture, from gun violence and labor policies to terrorism and health care, Michael Moore has earned both applause and invective in his career as a documentarian. In such polarizing films as Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, and Sicko, Moore has established a unique voice of radical nostalgia for progressivism, and in doing so has become one of the most recognized documentary filmmakers of all time. In the first in-depth study of Moore’s feature-length documentary films, editors Thomas W. Benson and Brian J. Snee have gathered leading rhetoric scholars to examine the production, rhetorical appeals, and audience reception of these films. Contributors critique the films primarily as modes of public argument and political art. Each essay is devoted to one of Moore’s films and traces in detail how each film invites specific audience responses. Michael Moore and the Rhetoric of Documentary reveals not only the art, the argument, and the emotional appeals of Moore’s documentaries but also how these films have revolutionized the genre of documentary filmmaking.

Michael Moore and the Rhetoric of Documentary

Michael Moore and the Rhetoric of Documentary PDF Author: Thomas W Benson
Publisher: SIU Press
ISBN: 0809334089
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
Not afraid to tackle provocative topics in American culture, from gun violence and labor policies to terrorism and health care, Michael Moore has earned both applause and invective in his career as a documentarian. In such polarizing films as Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, and Sicko, Moore has established a unique voice of radical nostalgia for progressivism, and in doing so has become one of the most recognized documentary filmmakers of all time. In the first in-depth study of Moore’s feature-length documentary films, editors Thomas W. Benson and Brian J. Snee have gathered leading rhetoric scholars to examine the production, rhetorical appeals, and audience reception of these films. Contributors critique the films primarily as modes of public argument and political art. Each essay is devoted to one of Moore’s films and traces in detail how each film invites specific audience responses. Michael Moore and the Rhetoric of Documentary reveals not only the art, the argument, and the emotional appeals of Moore’s documentaries but also how these films have revolutionized the genre of documentary filmmaking.

The Rhetoric of the New Political Documentary

The Rhetoric of the New Political Documentary PDF Author: Thomas W Benson
Publisher: SIU Press
ISBN: 9780809328369
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
The Rhetoric of the New Political Documentary explores the most visible and volatile element in the 2004 presidential campaign—the partisan documentary film. This collection of original critical essays by leading scholars and critics—including Shawn J. and Trevor Parry-Giles, Jennifer L. Borda, and Martin J. Medhurst—analyzes a selection of political documentaries that appeared during the 2004 election season. The editors examine the new political documentary with the tools of rhetorical criticism, combining close textual analysis with a consideration of the historical context and the production and reception of the films. The essays address the distinctive rhetoric of the new political documentary, with the films typically having been shot with relatively low budgets, in video, and using interviews and stock footage rather than observation of uncontrolled behavior. The quality was often good enough and interest was sufficiently intense that the films were shown in theaters and on television, which provided legitimacy and visibility before they were released soon afterwards on DVD and VHS and marketed on the Internet. The volume reviews such films as Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11; two refutations of Moore’s film, Fahrenhype 9/11 and Celsius 41.11;Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election; and George W. Bush: Faith in the White House—films that experimented with a variety of angles and rhetorics, from a mix of comic disparagement and earnest confrontation to various emulations of traditional news and documentary voices. The Rhetoric of the New Political Documentary represents the continued transformation of American political discourse in a partisan and contentious time and showcases the independent voices and the political power brokers that struggled to find new ways to debate the status quo and employ surrogate “independents” to create a counterrhetoric.

Michael Moore

Michael Moore PDF Author: Matthew Bernstein
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 0472071033
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
Indispensable perspectives on America's top documentary filmmaker and political commentator

Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11

Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 PDF Author: Robert Brent Toplin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Current Events
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
Examines the development of Michael Moore's ideas and the evolution of his filmmaking, then dissects "Fahrenheit 9/11", and explores the many claims and disagreements about the movie's truthfulness. This study shows that Michael Moore's film did more than shake up a nation.

The Official Fahrenheit 9-11 Reader

The Official Fahrenheit 9-11 Reader PDF Author: Michael Moore
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141926732
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
Fahrenheit 9/11 is the scorching cinema sensation that sent waves of shock and awe across the globe. Now you can get the facts behind the most talked about film of the year. Here Mike gives you the full, explosive transcript of the smash hit that's got the phoney President running for the hills - with extra outtakes that never made the final cut. He fires back at the critics with his own 'Fact Bible' to prove that it's all true, and gives us just a taste of the buzz that's made this movie torpedo all predictions and become a worldwide phenomenon.

Documentary's Awkward Turn

Documentary's Awkward Turn PDF Author: Jason Middleton
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317952197
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
Despite the prominence of "awkwardness" as cultural buzzword and descriptor of a sub-genre of contemporary film and television comedy, it has yet to be adequately theorized in academic film and media studies. Documentary’s Awkward Turn contributes a new critical paradigm to the field by presenting an analysis of awkward moments in documentary film and other reality-based media formats. It examines difficult and disrupted encounters between social actors on the screen, between filmmaker and subject, and between film and spectator. These encounters are, of course, often inter-connected. Awkward moments occur when an established mode of representation or reception is unexpectedly challenged, stalled, or altered: when an interviewee suddenly confronts the interviewer, when a subject who had been comfortable on camera begins to feel trapped in the frame, when a film perceived as a documentary turns out to be a parodic mockumentary. This book makes visible the ways in which awkwardness connects and subtends a range of transformative textual strategies, political and ethical problematics, and modalities of spectatorship in documentary film and media from the 1970s to the present.

Idiot Nation

Idiot Nation PDF Author: Michael Moore
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780141022345
Category : American wit and humor
Languages : en
Pages : 55

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Book Description
Every book tells a story . . . And the 70 titles in the Pocket Penguins series are emblematic of the renowned breadth and quality that formed part of the original Penguin vision in 1935 and that continue to define our publishing today. Together, they tell one version of the unique story of Penguin Books. Multi-million selling author; award-winning filmmaker, performer, activist and scourge of political hypocrites everywhere, Michael Moore is nothing less than a global phenomenon. Stupid White Men - the book they tried to ban in the US - was published by Penguin in the UK in 2002 and has since sold well over 1.5 million copies. These hilarious and scorching extracts show exactly why Moore is the man that everyone has an opinion on.

Satire and Dissent

Satire and Dissent PDF Author: Amber Day
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253005140
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
In an age when Jon Stewart frequently tops lists of most-trusted newscasters, the films of Michael Moore become a dominant topic of political campaign analysis, and activists adopt ironic, fake personas to attract attention—the satiric register has attained renewed and urgent prominence in political discourse. Amber Day focuses on the parodist news show, the satiric documentary, and ironic activism to examine the techniques of performance across media, highlighting their shared objective of bypassing standard media outlets and the highly choreographed nature of current political debate.

American Dissident

American Dissident PDF Author: Francois Primeau
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
FINALLY, A LEFT-WING LOOK AT THE WORK OF AMERICA'S MOST CONTROVERSIAL FILMMAKER! - With his new film Sicko, Michael Moore proves once again that he is the leading creative voice for the new Left in America. Few have criticized the social and foreign policies of the American government the way Moore did in his films, books, and TV shows. Titles such as Roger & Me, Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11 are now associated with an artist who has dedicated his professional life to expose the foibles of an America that believes itself virtuous and free, but which can only breathe on feelings of anger, mistrust and paranoia. American Dissident: The Political Art of Michael Moore is an engaging and thought-provoking look at the work of America's favorite civil libertarian. Through a personal reading and impassioned defense of Moore's project, it offers for the first time a detailed analysis of his feature films and two television series to date, TV Nation and The Awful Truth.

Documentary Film: A Very Short Introduction

Documentary Film: A Very Short Introduction PDF Author: Patricia Aufderheide
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199839980
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
Documentary film can encompass anything from Robert Flaherty's pioneering ethnography Nanook of the North to Michael Moore's anti-Iraq War polemic Fahrenheit 9/11, from Dziga Vertov's artful Soviet propaganda piece Man with a Movie Camera to Luc Jacquet's heart-tugging wildlife epic March of the Penguins. In this concise, crisply written guide, Patricia Aufderheide takes readers along the diverse paths of documentary history and charts the lively, often fierce debates among filmmakers and scholars about the best ways to represent reality and to tell the truths worth telling. Beginning with an overview of the central issues of documentary filmmaking--its definitions and purposes, its forms and founders--Aufderheide focuses on several of its key subgenres, including public affairs films, government propaganda (particularly the works produced during World War II), historical documentaries, and nature films. Her thematic approach allows readers to enter the subject matter through the kinds of films that first attracted them to documentaries, and it permits her to make connections between eras, as well as revealing the ongoing nature of documentary's core controversies involving objectivity, advocacy, and bias. Interwoven throughout are discussions of the ethical and practical considerations that arise with every aspect of documentary production. A particularly useful feature of the book is an appended list of "100 great documentaries" that anyone with a serious interest in the genre should see. Drawing on the author's four decades of experience as a film scholar and critic, this book is the perfect introduction not just for teachers and students but also for all thoughtful filmgoers and for those who aspire to make documentaries themselves. About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.