By Betsy A. McLane, Ph.D. Peter Watkins THE WAR GAME is one of the most controversial films ever to win the Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature. Produced in 1965 by BBC television, it relates the story of a possible Russian missile attack and its aftermath in southeastern England, during a limited nuclear war. This …
By Betsy A. McLane, Ph.D. Written in response to this request from THE VELVET LIGHT TRAP: In recent years, there has been an upswing in commercially successful documentaries as well as increased visibility for documentaries with overtly political messages. Along with these two trends, there has been more public attention to the political potential of …
The Measure of Success for Documentaries in U.S. Political Scene 2007 Read More »
By Betsy A. McLane, Ph.D. Where is it written that seeing is believing? The recent war in Iraq (Iraq II) saw the first widespread use of live picture/phone satellite transmitted television coverage of ongoing battle, reported by camera crews “imbedded” with military units. It was shaky, it was intermittent, the sound and image broke up, …
SIGHTS UNSEEN: a Discourse on the History of Mass Mediated War Read More »
By Betsy A. McLane Ph.D.Approximately 1000 wordsNovember 29, 2005 “My goal is to make as many films as possible about different aspects of American life.” Frederick Wiseman speaking to writer and critic Gerald Peary Frederick Wiseman’s body of work is unique among U.S. documentarians, at the same time that the films offer some of …
By Betsy A. McLane, Ph.D. Teaching and editing go hand in hand. There is great tradition in Hollywood editing; most editors working today have spent plenty of hours, some painful, some rewarding, and training newcomers on the job. And today’s editors, whether picture or sound, learned their skills through hands-on lessons from their predecessors. Mastering …
Editor Tina Hirsch at 2005 UFVA Conference From THE EDITORS GUILD MAGAZINE Read More »
By Betsy A. McLane, Ph.D. Rachel Carson’s (1917–1964) classic book THE SEA AROUND US, remains in print and is widely distributed more than fifty years after its first publication in 1952. Her highly readable descriptions of the origins of earth’s oceans and the wonders beneath their surfaces have enchanted generations of readers. She has been …
Program Notes for the AMPAS screening of the The SEA AROUND US, Fall 2005 Read More »
Aselect handful of names are forever linked to the invention of motion pictures: Thomas Edison (US), August and Louis Lumière (France), Robert William Paul (UK) and Eadweard Muybridge (UK and US). Each of these and others can lay claim to being the man who came up with the idea of the “movies.” In The Inventor and …
In North America, conversations about Brazil might center, depending upon one’s particular bent, on the beauty of the beaches and the jungles of the Amazon; the merits of the national cocktail, the Caipirinha and the bacchanal of Carnival; or the poverty in the big city favelas and environmental destruction caused by gold mining and logging. …