Two films in particular, the Sixth Generation Chinese Beijing Bicycle and the French-producedVietnamese Cyclo exemplify these conditons.
Under the ominous threat of party censorship, decreased funding, limited distribution and waning local audiences interested in Hollywood imports, a large number of these new filmmakers resort to filming underground. For these new directors and writers, gone are the epic melodramas and national nostalgia of the past and in their stead cruel and violent depictions of the individual in a hostile and unforgiving city. (Douglas MacCleod, Scope)Ĭontemporary Chinese and Vietnamese filmmakers are often hard-pressed to create new tactics that express their increasing apprehension regarding the urban fallout from the shifting tides of socioeconomic change and stagnation. (Andrew Utterson, Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television) Simply put, this is one of the definitive texts on the subject, not out of place among the likes of John Grierson, Erik Barnouw, and Bill Nichols. American Documentary Film offers a valuable model for rethinking documentary and its potential contribution to debates on American identity and history. (Ken Nolley, Choice) In detailing the myriad ways in which documentaries have reflected and refracted conceptions of nationhood in the USA. The book will be a particularly important acquisition for libraries with limited holdings on documentary film. the richness of Geiger's synthesis will make it an excellent text for courses in the subject and also a resource outside the classroom. (Ian Scott, H-net, Humanities and Social Sciences online). and the new benchmark in concise appreciation of American documentary film history. (Valerie Smith, Princeton University) This is nothing less than a tremendous achievement.
Rigorous yet accessible, this elegantly-written book will be of great value to the general reader and the specialist alike, and it will transform the way we consider the history, theory, and practice of documentary filmmaking. His brilliant close readings illuminate the relationship between the rhetorical, technical and stylistic elements of specific films and a broader set of contexts and concerns. In American Documentary Film, Jeffrey Geiger examines the role of documentary film in mobilizing, promoting, and even suppressing central myths of U.S.
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