Research Guides: HUMN 1002- Cater: Books

Historical Context

"Context is the setting which can modify our view of an idea, phenomenon or statement."

"Context." Bloomsbury Guide to Human Thought, edited by Kenneth McLeish, Bloomsbury, 1993. Credo Reference, http://ezproxy.mga.edu/login?url=http://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/bght/context/0. Accessed 06 Feb 2017.

When examining the context of your film, keep in mind that it will have a great deal to do with: the moods, attitudes and conditions that existed in the time period when your film takes place or was filmed.

Documentary Film Making

"A practice of filmmaking that deals with actual and factual (and usually contemporary) issues, institutions, and people; whose purpose is to educate, inform, communicate, persuade, raise consciousness, or satisfy curiosity; in which the viewer is commonly addressed as a citizen of a public sphere; whose materials are selected and arranged from what already exists (rather than being made up); and whose methods involve filming ‘real people’ as themselves in actual locations, using natural light and ambient sound. Although filmmaking of this type dates to the earliest years of cinema (see actualities; travel film), the term documentary was not coined until the 1920s, when the founder of the British Documentary Movement, John Grierson, defined it as ‘the creative treatment of actuality’."

Kuhn, A. & Westwell, G. (2012). "Documentary." In A Dictionary of Film Studies. : Oxford University Press. Retrieved 17 Nov. 2016.

Reference Books: Find Context

REMEMBER:

If you access any of these online resources off-campus, you will be prompted for your Galileo credentials.
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Encyclopedia Britannica / Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary Online -- Don't forget about the "Timeline" feature, which is listed under "Research Tools" on the homepage. NOTE: Select encyclopedia or dictionary to search.

Credo Reference -- search our online collection of 592 full-text reference books. See specific books within Credo Reference listed below:

Contemporary Youth Culture: An International Encyclopedia
An international and inter-disciplinary roster of experts shed light by exploring such topics as hip hop culture; punk culture; social justice movements; video games and others.
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Culture wars : an encyclopedia of issues, viewpoints, and voices
Addresses the key defining issues of contemporary American society through the lens of political and social controversy.
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Encyclopedia of Medical Anthropology: Health and Illness in the World's Cultures
Describes the cultural practices relevant to health in the world's cultures and provides an overview of important topics in medical anthropology.
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Guns in American Society: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics, Culture and the Law
Top scholars present an unbiased work that takes on the explosive issue of guns and gun violence in the United States.
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The 2011 Annual register : World events of 2010.
Long considered as essential reading by journalists, politicians, historians and anyone with an interest in current affairs, The Annual Register is a primary source text for historical research and (for the recent and current annuals) a current affairs reference work.
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The 2012 Annual register : World events of 2011
Long considered as essential reading by journalists, politicians, historians and anyone with an interest in current affairs, The Annual Register is a primary source text for historical research and (for the recent and current annuals) a current affairs reference work.
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The 2013 Annual Register: World Events 2012
Long considered as essential reading by journalists, politicians, historians and anyone with an interest in current affairs, The Annual Register is a primary source text for historical research and (for the recent and current annuals) a current affairs reference work.
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The Reader's companion to American history
The Reader's Companion to American History offers a fresh, absorbing portrait of the United States from the origins of its native peoples to the nation's complex identity in the 1990s. Covering political, economic, cultural, and social history, and combining hundreds of short descriptive entries with longer evaluative articles, the encyclopedia is informative, engaging, and a pleasure to read.
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Reference Books- Find Context

The Americana annual : an encyclopedia of current events.
Call Number: REF AE5 .A55
THE ANNALS OF AMERICA
Call Number: REF E173 .A793
American Decades: Primary Documents by Cynthia Rose (Editor)
Call Number: E169.1 .A471977 2004
ISBN: 0787665878
Publication Date: 2003-12-05
U. S. A. : a chronicle in pictures by Neil Wenborn
Call Number: E174.5 .W46 1991
ISBN: 0831713992
Publication Date: 1991-07-01
The Greenwood Guide to American Popular Culture by M. Thomas Inge (Editor); Dennis Hall (Editor)
Call Number: REF E169.1 .G7555 2002
ISBN: 0313308780
Publication Date: 2002-11-30
Chronology of the United States by John Clements
Call Number: REF E174.5 .C63 1997
ISBN: 0070113289
Publication Date: 1975-01-01
Encyclopedia of American Social History by Mary K. Cayton (Editor); Elliott J. Gorn (Editor); Peter W. Williams (Editor)
Call Number: REF HN57 .E58 1993
ISBN: 0684192462
Publication Date: 1993-02-01
Current Biography
Call Number: REF CT100 .C8
The Sixties by Arthur Marwick
Call Number: CB425 .M424 1999
ISBN: 0192881000
Publication Date: 2000-02-03
Complete Film Dictionary by Ira Konigsberg
Call Number: REF PN1993.45 .K66 1998
ISBN: 0140513930
Publication Date: 1998-11-01
Censorship by Carl Jensen (Consultant Editor); R. Kent Rasmussen (Editorial Coordinator); Lawrence Amey (Consultant Editor); Timothy L. Hall (Consultant Editor); Charles May (Consultant Editor); Richard L. Wilson (Consultant Editor)
Call Number: REF Z658.U5 C38 1997
ISBN: 0893564443
Publication Date: 1997-09-01
Women Film Directors by Gwendolyn Audrey Foster
Call Number: REF PN1998.2 .F67 1995
ISBN: 0313289727
Publication Date: 1995-11-30
The New York Times Film Reviews 1913-1970 by George Amberg (Editor)
Call Number: REF PN1995 .A43
ISBN: 0812902335
Publication Date: 1972-02-01
The New York times film reviews
Call Number: REF PN1995 .N4
Dictionary of Film Terms by Frank Beaver
Call Number: REF TR847 .B43 1983
ISBN: 0070042128
Publication Date: 1983-01-01
Film Plots by Leonard J. Leff
Call Number: REF PN1997.8 .L42 1983
ISBN: 0876501498
Publication Date: 1983-05-01
The Film Encyclopedia by Ephraim Katz
Call Number: REF PN1993.45 .K34 1982
ISBN: 0399506012
Publication Date: 1982-04-23
The International encyclopedia of film
Call Number: REF PN1993.45 .I5 1972
The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Film by Russell Jackson (Editor)
Call Number: REF PR3093 .C36 2007
ISBN: 9780521866002
Publication Date: 2007-03-29
Film Directors: a guide to their American films by James R. Parish; Michael R. Pitts
Call Number: REF PN1998 .P24
ISBN: 0810807521
Publication Date: 1974-01-01
The Film Noir Encyclopedia by Alain Silver; Elizabeth Ward; James Ursini; Robert Porfirio
Call Number: REF PN1995.9.F54 F555 2010
ISBN: 9781590201442
Publication Date: 2010-05-13
Cinema by Richard Roud
Call Number: REF PN1993.45 .C5
ISBN: 0670222577
Publication Date: 1980-05-01
A Biographical Dictionary of Film by David Thomson
Call Number: REF PN1998.A2 T55 1976
ISBN: 0688029744
Publication Date: 1976-01-01
Film Criticism by Richard Heinzkill
Call Number: PN1995 .H4 1975
ISBN: 0810808404
Publication Date: 1975-08-01

Outline of US History from the Dept. of State

Outline of US History
“Outline of U.S. History” is a publication of the U.S. Department of State. This ebook edition is available via GALILEO by clicking the link above.
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Film-related Reference books-online

The Ridley Scott encyclopedia (ebook via Galileo)
The entries in this encyclopedia focus on all aspects of his work and are divided into four categories. The first focuses on Ridley Scott's work as a director, encompassing his feature films from The Duellists to Body of Lies, as well as his work in television, including commercials. The second category focuses on the people who have been involved in Scott's projects, including actors, directors, producers, designers, writers and other creative personnel. The third focuses on general thematic issues raised in Scott's work, such as gender construction, political issues, and geographical locations. Finally the encyclopedia incorporates entries on films by other directors who have influenced Scott's approach to his work as a director or producer. Each entry is followed by a bibliography of published sources, both in print and online, making this the most comprehensive reference on Scott's body of work.
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Television and Film : An Annotated Bibliography of Research Materials(ebook via Galileo)
Despite the spotty record on the part of educators in utilizing popular culture
resources, there exist a significant number of titles--including traditional reference categories such as biographical sources, encyclopedias, handbooks, etc.--possessing inherent research value. Even those tools geared primarily to casual reading by a lay audience which were once available primarily through mail order firms and retail stores, are now found in libraries to an increasingly greater degree. The resources comprising TELEVISION AND FILM: AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF RESEARCH MATERIALS have been culled from essentially the same sources a searcher might employ in accessing a wide range of present-day topics, most notably catalogs and union lists of library holdings (many of which are now available online).
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Noir, Now and Then : Film Noir Originals and Remakes, (1944-1999) (ebook via Galileo)
This examination of the cinematic style of film noir originals and their neo-noir remakes compares thirty-five films, beginning with Billy Wilder's classic Double Indemnity and concluding with Jim McBride's BreathlesS≪/i>. In-depth analysis of the films explain the qualities and characteristics of film noir, while providing critical readings of both the originals and the remakes. The most significant films since 1944 are reviewed and reveal the ever-changing values in American society. As this study reveals, the noir style significantly impacted American film and neo-noir remakes attest to its continued popularity in cinematic art.
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Class, language, and American film comedy (ebook via Galileo)
This book examines the evolution of American film comedy through the lens of language and the portrayal of social class. Christopher Beach argues that class has been an important element in the development of sound comedy as a cinematic form. With the advent of sound in the late 1920s and early 1930s, filmmakers recognized that sound and narrative enlarged the semiotic and ideological potential of film. Analyzing the use of language in the films of the Marx Brothers, Frank Capra, Woody Allen and the Coen brothers, among others, Class, Language, and American Film Comedy traces the history of Hollywood from the 1930s to the present, while offering a new approach to the study of class and social relationships through linguistic analysis.
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Documentary History and Theory

Ethnographic Film by Karl G. Heider
Call Number: GN347
ISBN: 9780292714588
Publication Date: 2006-11-01
Even before Robert Flaherty released Nanook of the North in 1922, anthropologists were producing films about the lifeways of native peoples for a public audience, as well as for research and teaching. Ethnographic Film (1976) was one of the first books to provide a comprehensive introduction to this field of visual anthropology, and it quickly became the standard reference. In this new edition, Karl G. Heider thoroughly updates Ethnographic Film to reflect developments in the field over the three decades since its publication, focusing on the work of four seminal filmmakers--Jean Rouch, John Marshall, Robert Gardner, and Timothy Asch. He begins with an introduction to ethnographic film and a history of the medium. He then considers many attributes of ethnographic film, including the crucial need to present "whole acts," "whole bodies," "whole interactions," and "whole people" to preserve the integrity of the cultural context. Heider also discusses numerous aspects of making ethnographic films, from ethics and finances to technical considerations such as film versus video and preserving the filmed record. He concludes with a look at using ethnographic film in teaching.
Cine-Ethnography by Jean Rouch; Steven Feld (Editor, Translator)
Call Number: GN347
ISBN: 0816641048
Publication Date: 2003-02-07
One of the most influential figures in documentary and ethnographic filmmaking, Jean Rouch has made more than one hundred films in West Africa and France. In such acclaimed works as Jaguar, The Lion Hunters, and Cocorico, Monsieur Poulet, Rouch has explored racism, colonialism, African modernity, religious ritual, and music. He pioneered numerous film techniques and technologies, and in the process inspired generations of filmmakers, from New Wave directors, who emulated his cinema verité style, to today’s documentarians.Ciné-Ethnography is a long-overdue English-language resource that collects Rouch's key writings, interviews, and other materials that distill his thinking on filmmaking, ethnography, and his own career. Editor Steven Feld opens with a concise overview of Rouch’s career, highlighting the themes found throughout his work. In the four essays that follow, Rouch discusses the ethnographic film as a genre, the history of African cinema, his experiences of filmmaking among the Songhay, and the intertwined histories of French colonialism, anthropology, and cinema. And in four interviews, Rouch thoughtfully reflects on each of his films, as well as his artistic, intellectual, and political concerns. Ciné-Ethnography also contains an annotated transcript of Chronicle of a Summer—one of Rouch's most important works—along with commentary by the filmmakers, and concludes with a complete, annotated filmography and a bibliography.The most thorough resource on Rouch available in any language, Ciné-Ethnography makes clear this remarkable and still vital filmmaker's major role in the history of documentary cinema.Jean Rouch was born in Paris in 1917. He studied civil engineering before turning to film and anthropology in response to his experiences in West Africa during World War II. Rouch is the recipient of numerous awards, including the International Critics Award at Cannes for the film Chronicle of a Summer in 1961. Steven Feld is professor of music and anthropology at Columbia University.
Principles of Visual Anthropology by Paul Hockings (Editor)
Call Number: GN347
ISBN: 9783110290691
Publication Date: 1995-01-01
This edition contains 27 articles, written by scholars and film makers who are generally acknowledged as the international authorities in the filed. The book covers ethnographic filming and its relations to the cinema and television; applications of filming to anthropological research, the uses of still photography, archives, and videotape; subdisciplinary applications in ethnography, archeology, bio-anthropology, museology and ethnohistory; and overcoming the funding problems of film production.
The Adventure of the Real by Paul Henley
Call Number: PN1998.3.R674 H46 2009eb
ISBN: 9780226327167
Publication Date: 2010-01-15
Though relatively unsung in the English-speaking world, Jean Rouch (1917OCo2004) was a towering figure of ethnographic cinema. Over the course of a fifty-year career, he completed over one hundred films, both documentary and fiction, and exerted an influence far beyond academia. Exhaustively researched yet elegantly written, "The Adventure of the Real" is the first comprehensive analysis of his practical filmmaking methods. a Rouch developed these methods while conducting anthropological research in West Africa in the 1940sOCo1950s. His innovative use of unscripted improvisation by his subjects had a profound impact on the French New Wave, Paul Henley reveals, while his documentary work launched the genre of "cinema-v(r)rit(r)." In addition to tracking RouchOCOs pioneering career, Henley examines the technical strategies, aesthetic considerations, and ethical positions that contribute to RouchOCOs cinematographic legacy. Featuring over one hundred and fifty images, "The Adventure of the Real" is an essential introduction to RouchOCOs work.
New History of Documentary Film by Jack C. Ellis; Betsy A. McLane
Call Number: PN1995.9.D6 E46 2005
ISBN: 0826417515
Publication Date: 2005-08-01
A thorough and definitive survey/history of documentary films. Concentrating mainly on the output of the US, the UK, and Canada, the authors outline the origins of the form and then show its development over the next several decades. The book is completely up-to-date in discussing films like Fahrenheit 9/11 and Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer.Written in a simple, chronological format, the text is straightforward and full of content, information, and historical perspective. Each chapter concludes with a list of the key documentaries in that particular time period or genre, and there are helpful appendices listing all the winners of the Academy Award for Best Documentary, as well as the winners of the Grierson Award. >
A Journey Through Documentary Film by Luke Dormehl
Call Number: PN1995.9 .D6
ISBN: 9781842435908
Publication Date: 2012-10-01
From Nanook of the North to Exit Through the Gift Shop, an overview of nonfiction film history from the early pioneers to the directors dominating the field today As one of the most fascinating areas of filmmaking, documentaries have broken down societal taboos, changed legislation, strengthened and rocked entire governments, freed wrongly convicted prisoners, and taught us more about the world in which we live. This overview of documentary history takes readers from the early "actualities" of pioneering nonfiction filmmakers such as Robert J. Flaherty and John Grierson, to the documentaries of Michael Moore, Errol Morris, Werner Herzog, and the directors dominating the field—and box office—today. An essential resource for film students, documentary buffs, filmmakers, and anyone interested in nonfiction film, it looks in-depth at more than 60 documentaries from around the world, covering a century of cinema, to illustrate what "documentary" means, and the changes and transitions that have occurred in nonfiction filmmaking over the years. Covering films such as Night Mail, Night and Fog, The Sorrow and the Pity, F for Fake, The Thin Blue Line, Hoop Dreams, Fahrenheit 9/11, Grizzly Man, and Man on Wire, each analysis includes an introductory synopsis, as well as detailed notes on the film's production history, filmmaker, unique innovations, construction, and key themes and issues.
Projecting History by Nora M. Alter
Call Number: PN1995.9.D6 A39 2002eb
ISBN: 9780472068128
Publication Date: 2002-08-14
The intersection between social, historical, and political developments in Germany and the emergence of a nonfiction mode of film production
Documenting the Black Experience by Novotny Lawrence (Editor)
Call Number: E185.61
ISBN: 9781476619637
Publication Date: 2014-10-24
History taught at the elementary, middle, high school and even college levels often excludes significant events from African American history, such as the murder of Emmett Till or the murder of four black girls by the Ku Klux Klan in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham. Such events are integral parts of history that continue to inform America's racial politics. Their exclusion is a problem that this work addresses by bringing more visibility to documentary films focusing on the events. Books treating the history of documentary films follow a similar pattern, omitting the efforts of filmmakers who have continued to focus on African American history. This book works to make documentary discourse more complete, bringing attention to films that cover the African American experience in four areas--civil rights, sports, electronic media, and the contemporary black struggle--demonstrating how the issues continue to inform America's racial politics
Introduction to Documentary by Bill Nichols
Call Number: PN1995.9.D6 N539 2001eb
ISBN: 9780253108524
Publication Date: 2001-11-12
Introduction to Documentary provides a one-of-a-kind overview of the most important topics and issues in documentary history and criticism. Designed for students in any field that makes use of visual evidence and persuasive strategies, from the law to anthropology, and from history to journalism, this book spells out the distinguishing qualities of documentary. A wide-ranging and freewheeling form of filmmaking, documentary has not yet received a proper, written introduction to its public, or its future makers. Introduction to Documentary is not organized as a history of the form although its examples span a century of filmmaking. Instead, this book offers suggestive answers to basic issues that have stood at the center of all debate on documentary from its very beginnings to today. Each chapter takes up a distinct question from How did documentary filmmaking get started? to Why are ethical issues central to documentary? These questions move through issues of ethics, form, modes, voice, history and politics, among others. A final chapter addresses the question of how to write about documentary in a clear, convincing manner. Introduction to Documentary provides the foundational key to further explorations in this exceptionally vital area of filmmaking today.
Cross-Cultural Filmmaking by Ilisa Barbash; Lucien Taylor
Call Number: GN347 .B37 1997eb
ISBN: 9780520915091
Publication Date: 1997-11-03
This extraordinary handbook was inspired by the distinctive concerns of anthropologists and others who film people in the field. The authors cover the practical, technical, and theoretical aspects of filming, from fundraising to exhibition, in lucid and complete detail--information never before assembled in one place. The first section discusses filmmaking styles and the assumptions that frequently hide unacknowledged behind them, as well as the practical and ethical issues involved in moving from fieldwork to filmmaking. The second section concisely and clearly explains the technical aspects, including how to select and use equipment, how to shoot film and video, and the reasons for choosing one or the other, and how to record sound. Finally, the third section outlines the entire process of filmmaking: preproduction, production, postproduction, and distribution. Filled with useful illustrations and covering documentary and ethnographic filmmaking of all kinds, Cross-Cultural Filmmaking will be as essential to the anthropologist or independent documentarian on location as to the student in the classroom.
New Documentary by Stella Bruzzi
Call Number: PN1995.9.D6 B78 2000
ISBN: 0203171128
Publication Date: 2000-08-01
For Documentary by Dai Vaughan
Call Number: PN1995.9.D6 V33 1999
ISBN: 058528511X
Publication Date: 1999-01-01
These essays, which span twenty-five years of writing and a lifetime of experience, offer fresh and challenging insights into documentary. Dai Vaughan, one of the most highly regarded documentary editors to have worked in Britain in recent decades, makes his starting point plain: Most of us would feel that the word 'documentary' had not justified its place in the dictionary if the films so called did not manifest some relationship with the world not shared by others. That elusive relationship is the subject of his eloquent reflections and analyses. As critic, Vaughan contrasts the Olympic Games films of Riefenstahl (1936) and Ichikawa (1964); as participant, he tells how the introduction of portable 16mm equipment gave rise to cinema verite and observational visual anthropology. The twin perspective of analyst and practitioner results in a radical restatement of the documentary project, one in which documentary is seen as engaging the viewer's freedom in a way that fiction does not. A chapter near the end, From Today, Cinema Is Dead, is uncompromising in its pessimistic view that digitalization threatens the privileged relationship we have always granted between a photograph and its object. Film theorists and filmmakers, indeed everyone who cares about how our society represents itself to itself, will find For Documentary engrossing as well as illuminating.
Principles of Visual Anthropology by Paul Hockings (Editor)
Call Number: GN347 .P75 2003eb
ISBN: 9783110221138
Publication Date: 2003-01-01
This edition contains 27 articles, written by scholars and filmmakers who are generally acknowledged as the international authorities in the field, and a new preface by the editor. The book covers ethnographic filming and its relations to the cinema and television; applications of filming to anthropological research, the uses of still photography, archives, and videotape; subdisciplinary applications in ethnography, archeology, bio-anthropology, museology and ethnohistory; and overcoming the funding problems of film production.