Shooting the Truth The Rise of American Political Documentaries

Subjects:

• Political Science » American Politics/Government
• Communications » Journalism
• Popular Culture » Film Studies
• Popular Culture » American Studies

Awards:

• CHOICE Outstanding Academic Titles, 2006

Reviews:

• The rise of political documentaries in the US may be a reaction to the decline of the liberal television network news-gathering operations, which are hemorrhaging viewers to less professional cable news outlets such as the right-turning Fox channel. As television news has become partisan and trivialized, claims McEnteer, viewers hungry for news have turned to nonfiction films; he points out that "eight of the ten top-grossing documentaries of all time were released since 2002." Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, which grossed $120 million, became the bellwether for anti-Bush, antiwar polemical documentaries. Defining nonfiction film as propaganda, the book concentrates on films that "challenge official government narratives and offer competing alternative narratives of their own." McEnteer devotes chapters to such major talents as directors Errol Morris and Barbara Kopple, the more widely known "ambush artist" Michael Moore, and Robert Greenwald (best known for Outfoxed); Moore remains front and center. This book on the latest permutations of documentary films was as inevitable as it is welcome. Essential. All readers; all levels.
  —Choice September 2006
• Shooting the Truth highlights the rise of one of the recent louder voices in the marketplace--the political documentary.
  —American Journalism Winter 2006
• Is the modern political documentary an alternative to the television industry's failure to sustain a commitment to the public interest? According to McEnteer the transition began with the firing of Edward R. Murrow in the 1950s over the controversies he raised in the pioneering television show See It Now and is thriving with such producers as Big Noise and the Guerilla News Network. Along the way he closely tracks the work of Barbara Kopple, Michael Moore, Errol Morris and Robert Greenwald, with forays into other documentary filmmakers whose conclusions run contrary to what the government and Big Media offer. He describes how deception works on both sides of the great issues, how political filmmakers influence public opinion and sometimes policy, and focuses for a chapter on the films on all sides of the 2004 presidential campaign.
  —Reference & Research Book News May 2006
• Author James McEnteer analyzes the politics of a range of documentaries of recent decades, providing chapters which evaluate four artists in depth and use their approaches and works as a foundation for revealing political documentary contents, approaches and growing popularity. While the analysis is particular to these artists as far as selected films used as examples, its implications hold many insights on the documentary film as a whole. College-level audiences of film studies in particular will want to read this.
  —California Bookwatch/Midwest Book Review April 2006

• Endorsement From Richard L. Zweigenhaft
  Dana Professor of Psychology and Director of the Communications Program, Guilford College: McEnteer has written a lively, insightful and much-needed analysis of the re-emerging genre of American political documentaries. He explores why such films have attracted so many viewers in recent years, and examines both the films and the political landscape in which they have been made. The book is an important contribution to the growing literature on documentary films.
• Endorsement From Jytte Jenson, Curator
  Department of Film and Media
  The Museum of Modern Art: As intelligently provocative and entertaining as the films it explores, Shooting the Truth assesses recent American political documentaries and examines how the genre has entered its golden age. McEnteer's forceful and fascinating study of how official government narratives of the American political process are challenged by the alternative (and successful) narratives of contemporary nonfiction films is an immensely engaging read."

PDF Catalogs:

Pop Culture Spring 2008.pdf