Since the 1960s, documentary films have moved closer to the mainstream, thanks to the popularity of rockumentaries, association with the independent film movement, support from public and cable television, and the rise of streaming video services. Documentary films have become reliable earners at the U.S. box office and ubiquitous on streaming platforms, while historically they existed on the margins of mainstream media. How do we explain the growing commercialization of documentary films and the conditions that fueled their transformation?
The growing commercialization of documentary film has not gone unnoticed, but it has not been sufficiently explained. Streaming and the growing interest in reality TV are usually offered as initial explanations whenever a documentary enters the cultural conversation or breaks a box-office record, but neither of those causes grapple with the overlapping causal mechanisms that commercialized documentary film. How Documentaries Went Mainstream provides a more comprehensive and meaningful periodization of the commercialization of documentary film. Although the commercial ascension of documentary films might seem meteoric, it is the culmination of decades-long efforts that have developed and fortified the audience for documentary features. Author Nora Stone refines rough explanations of these efforts through a robust synoptic history of the market for documentary films, using knowledge of film economics and the norms of industry discourse to tell a richer story. This periodization will allow scholars to compare the commercialization of documentary film with other genres. Drawing on archival documents, industry trade journals and popular press, and interviews with filmmakers and film distributors, Stone illuminates how documentary features have become more plentiful, popular, and profitable than ever before.
By:
Nora Stone ( Birmingham-Southern College)
Imprint: Oxford University Press Inc
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 158mm,
Width: 235mm,
Spine: 15mm
Weight: 350g
ISBN: 9780197557303
ISBN 10: 0197557309
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 13 June 2023
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction: How Documentaries Went Mainstream Chapter 1: 1960 to 1977, Direct Cinema Blossoms, But Little Support for Documentary Films in Theaters Chapter 2: 1978 to 1989, A Rising Tide: How the Independent Film Movement Boosted Documentaries Chapter 3: 1978 to 1990, Fighting For A Place On Public Television: Independent Filmmakers Lobby Chapter 4: 1990 to 1999, Television or Cinema? Redefining Documentary for Prestige and Profit Chapter 5: 2000 to 2007, The Docbuster Era Chapter 6: 2008 to 2022, Streaming Video Drives Documentary Production Trends and Private Investment Conclusion: Documentary Film Inches Closer to the Center, But Core Tensions Remain Bibliography Index
Nora Stone is a film historian and filmmaker teaching at the Birmingham-Southern College. She earned a PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and has published work in Media Industries Journal, Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television, and Los Angeles Review of Books. Her short films have screened at the Maryland Film Festival, Wisconsin Film Festival, Architecture and Design Film Festival, among others. She produced and art-directed the independent feature film A Dim Valley (distributed by Altered Innocence).
Reviews for How Documentaries Went Mainstream: A History, 1960-2022
Stone's history of post-verite U.S. documentary is, simply put, the book I've been waiting for. For too long, documentary histories have focused primarily on makers and movements, but Stone weaves an account of the film markets, documentary institutions, and shifts in film culture driving documentary's increased public visibility. Whether discussing canonical works, box office flops, public television broadcasts, or popular documentary hits, this book provides a narrative that reframes and illuminates the major changes in the documentary landscape over the last half century. * Chris Cagle, Associate Professor, Temple University, Film and Media Arts * How Documentaries Went Mainstream explores the tension between public service and commodity exchange in the documentary film market by tracing the shifting industrial trends in documentary distribution and exhibition between the 1960s and today. Deftly researched and incisively written, Stone's book offers an important intervention in the history of documentary by focusing on the mode's industrial concerns. Essential reading for anyone interested in how and why documentary has come to occupy such a prolific and lucrative corner of the media market in recent years. * Kristen Fuhs, Professor of Media Studies, Woodbury University *
