States of Emergency: Documentaries, Wars, Democracies

ISBN-10: 1452903999
ISBN-13: 9781452903996
Series: States of Emergency
Category: Documentary films
Language: English
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
Author: Patricia Rodden Zimmermann

Description

Today's political, technological, and aesthetic landscapes are rife with landmines. In this embattled milieu, leftist filmmakers and conservatives struggle for control of the national imaginary. Amid unprecedented mergers and consolidations, political conservatives have launched major attacks against the National Endowment for the Arts, the Public Broadcasting System, state arts councils, and other sponsors of oppositional programming. Meanwhile, developing technologies like satellites and the Internet have not only altered and globalized communication but also offer untapped possibilities for reconstructing democracies. All of these events signal a radical transformation in how we will view the world in the decades to come. In States of Emergency, Patricia R. Zimmermann describes the shifting terrains socially engaged documentary artists and experimental filmmakers encounter in the aftermath of these changes. Public space has been chiseled away and politically conscious documentaries forced to go underground. Viewing an array of subjects (including the wars in Bosnia, Chiapas, and the Persian Gulf; Japanese internment during World War II; homelessness; race; and reproductive rights) through technologies ranging from high-end video, camcorders, cable access, digital imaging systems, and media piracy, Zimmermann creates an explosive montage of colliding ideas and events. In combative terms, she charts the intricately layered relationships between independent documentary, power, money, and culture, and also analyzes how media artists use new technologies and radical media practices to undermine cuts in support and conservative backlash. States of Emergency anchors documentary into asocial and historical context that shows the complex connections among audiences, filmmakers, funders, and subjects in the fascinating and fraught milieu in which they coexist. Zimmermann passionately and convincingly argues that the survival of democracies and public spaces is inextricably fueled by the robust endurance of documentary and other insurgent forms of communication.

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Other editions

States of Emergency: Architecture, Urbanism, and the First World War
- 2022-04-28
- 336 pages
- Paperback
- Leuven University Press
States of Emergency: Keeping the Global Population in Check
- 2022-01-01
- 306 pages
- Ebook
- SCB Distributors
States of Emergency: Essays on Culture and Politics
- 2013-09-25
- 308 pages
- Ebook
- Indiana University Press
States of Emergency: Colonialism, Literature and Law
- 2013-02-04
- 259 pages
- Ebook
- Liverpool University Press

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