Screening Reality: How Documentary Filmmakers Reimagined America

by Jon Wilkman

Overview

“A towering achievement, and a volume I know I’ll be consulting on a regular basis.”—Leonard Maltin

"Authoritative, accessible, and elegantly written, Screening Reality is the history of American documentary film we have been waiting for." —Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times film critic

From Edison to IMAX, Ken Burns to virtual environments, the first comprehensive history of American documentary film and the remarkable men and women who changed the way we view the world.

Amidst claims of a new “post-truth” era, documentary filmmaking has experienced a golden age. Today, more documentaries are made and widely viewed than ever before, illuminating our increasingly fraught relationship with what’s true in politics and culture. For most of our history, Americans have depended on motion pictures to bring the realities of the world into view. And yet the richly complex, ever-evolving relationship between nonfiction movies and American history is virtually unexplored.

Screening Reality is a widescreen view of how American “truth” has been discovered, defined, projected, televised, and streamed during more than one hundred years of dramatic change, through World Wars I and II, the dawn of mass media, the social and political turmoil of the sixties and seventies, and the communications revolution that led to a twenty-first century of empowered yet divided Americans.

In the telling, professional filmmaker Jon Wilkman draws on his own experience, as well as the stories of inventors, adventurers, journalists, entrepreneurs, artists, and activists who framed and filtered the world to inform, persuade, awe, and entertain. Interweaving American and motion picture history, and an inquiry into the nature of truth on screen, Screening Reality is essential and fascinating reading for anyone looking to expand an understanding of the American experience and today’s truth-challenged times.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781635571035
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	02/18/2020
Pages:	512
Sales rank:	648,616
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.80(d)

About the Author

Jon Wilkman is an author and award-winning filmmaker whose work has appeared on ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, HBO and A&E. His seven-part Turner Classic Movies series, Moguls and Movie Stars: A History of Hollywood, was nominated for three Emmys. His previous book, Floodpath, was an Amazon Nonfiction Book of the Year. A founding member and three-term president of the International Documentary Association, Wilkman lives in Los Angeles.

Table of Contents

Prologue: Facing the Facts 1

1 The World on a Screen 13

2 Reality Under Fire and Projected Americanism 32

3 Bijou Safaris and Truthful Lies 47

4 Rebels, Government Agents, and Reenactors 73

5 War, Peace, and Propaganda, Take Two 107

6 Fun Facts, Gawking Mother Nature, Molding Minds, and Homemade History 144

7 Small Screens, Big Stories 178

8 Zooming In 210

9 For the People, by the People 247

10 Three Windows, One Landscape 277

11 Additional Takes 311

12 60 Minutes, Mock and Mega Truth, the Multiverse, and Life through the Looking Glass 352

13 Getting Real in a Golden Age 391

Epilogue: Virtual Reality and Then What? 431

Acknowledgments 447

Notes 449

Selected Bibliography 469

Index 485

Editorial Reviews

★ 09/23/2019

Filmmaker Wilkman (Floodpath) brings his love of documentary film and enthusiasm for its potential to this enthralling survey of the genre’s history in America. To the book’s great benefit, Wilkman does not adopt a doctrinaire definition of his subject, but includes both semistaged films such as Robert Flaherty’s 1922 look at Inuit life, Nanook of the North, and pure works of cinema verité such as brothers Albert and David Maysles’s 1969 film Salesman. Wilkman is also careful to recognize significant female contributions to a male-dominated field, such as from Flaherty’s wife and story consultant, Frances, or from the Maysles’ editor, Charlotte Zwerin (who eventually won recognition from them as a codirector, as well). Accessible and immersive, Wilkman’s text is peppered with numerous unexpected revelations, including Henry Ford’s role as producer of some of the earliest newsreels and educational and industrial films, and the documentary roots of such feature film directors as George Lucas and Martin Scorsese. Throughout, he skillfully weaves in historical context, such as how opposition to fascism and Nazism imparted additional urgency to documentary filmmaking, and how the 1951 introduction of videotape presaged the democratization of the field. A valuable resource for cinephiles, this sweeping history will ignite a new enthusiasm for the form among readers less well-versed in the genre. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

Enthralling . . . A valuable resource for cinephiles, this sweeping history will ignite a new enthusiasm for the form among readers less well-versed in the genre.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A many-faceted, dynamic, and thought-provoking history of nonfiction films in America . . . This monumental exploration reminds us that 'evidential truth' is essential to liberty and justice . . . Let the real be real; let truth ring true.” —Donna Seaman, Booklist (starred review)

“An illuminating, encyclopedic history of nonfiction film . . . A capacious celebration of film's potential to show us the world.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Well-documented . . . Wilkman consistently cycles back to one important message: no matter how fuzzy the lines between fiction and fact, truth should be forefront in the minds of documentarians. Our supposedly posttruth era and the pitfalls and ease with which we augment reality are threads through the narrative . . . Wilkman makes a compelling case.” —Library Journal

"This illuminating, comprehensive history of nonfiction filmmaking examines how truth has been represented on screen since the first moving image." - Shelf Awareness

“Authoritative, accessible, and elegantly written, Screening Reality is the history of American documentary film we have been waiting for. ” —Kenneth Turan, LOS ANGELES TIMES film critic

"Jon Wilkman has accomplished the near-impossible in this informative and highly readable new book. A respected documentarian himself, the author brings first-hand experience to the subject. Dip into any chapter and you’ll find yourself comparing notes (for the book is openly opinionated) or being reminded of films you want to see. It is a towering achievement, and a volume I know I’ll be consulting on a regular basis." - Leonard Maltin

“Fantastically well researched and written, Screening Reality raises the bar for anyone who wants to write about the history of documentaries and documentarians, with invaluable insights into today's truth-challenged times.” —Peter Davis, Academy Award-winning director of HEARTS AND MINDS; author of GIRL OF MY DREAMS

“In Screening Reality, filmmaker Jon Wilkman provides a fascinating look at the many ways documentary (and so-called documentary) cinema has shaped and distorted our vision of American history. It is a remarkably comprehensive study, tracking the course of documentary film from the actualities conjured in Thomas Edison's Black Maria to the true crime series streamed on Netflix. Wilkman commands a skill set that is perfectly suited to the task, lacing his insights with the filmmaker's understanding of the craft and the historian's respect for the facts on record.” —Thomas Doherty, Professor of American Studies, Brandeis University

“Jon Wilkman offers an engaging, valuable history of American documentary and nonfiction media from the fresh and badly needed perspective of someone who has worked in the field-particularly Television documentary-for fifty years. Lively, enjoyable and highly informative.” —Charles Musser, Professor of American Studies and Film & Media Studies at Yale University and producer/director of Errol Morris: A Lightning Sketch.

“Jon Wilkman's Screening Reality is both readable and informative. The entire history of documentary film in the U.S. is here, examined with efficiency and style. A truly splendid achievement.” —Anthony Slide, author of New York City Vaudeville and former Resident Historian at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

"Engaging and deeply informative, an essential piece of cinematic, and social, history." - Alta

"A page-turner . . . Wilkman immediately captured my attention from the very first chapter by weaving together his encyclopedic knowledge of the technological evolution of motion pictures with delightfully rich detail and informative asides that elaborate on what we think we already know about the history of documentary cinema." - Documentary

From the Publisher

2019-10-14
A documentary filmmaker examines the history of conveying truth on screen.

Drawing on his own career and extensive research (including viewing every film he discusses), Wilkman (Floodpath: The Deadliest Man-Made Disaster of 20th Century America and the Making of Modern Los Angeles, 2016, etc.), whose series Moguls and Movie Stars was nominated for three Emmys, offers an illuminating, encyclopedic history of nonfiction film, from Eadweard Muybridge's 1878 images of a galloping horse to the virtual reality of the 21st century. While Westerns, comedies, mysteries, and romances dominated the entertainment industry in its early days, in 1908, in order to meet audiences' demand for "glimpses of the real world," the French film company founded by Charles Pathé and his brothers began distributing newsreels: short films recording events such as a daredevil's fall from the Eiffel Tower and a suffragette march in Washington, D.C. In addition to showing current events, including images of military activities during wars, nonfiction movies became a popular means of education. Henry Ford, diving into movie production, offered films on topics such as pottery making, newspaper production, and, not surprisingly, "Ford's way of doing business." Wilkman creates vivid profiles of significant documentarians: photographer Edward S. Curtis, who filmed Native peoples of British Columbia; the daring Osa and Martin Johnson, who filmed expeditions in Africa and the South Pacific; and Robert Flaherty, whose Nanook of the North, a lyrical celebration of Inuit culture, became an unlikely box office success. During World War II, the Army enlisted acclaimed director Frank Capra to produce documentaries "to show Americans what they're fighting for and why." TV ensured new audiences for revelations about public issues, society, and culture, on such programs as See It Now, CBS Reports, Frontline, Ken Burns' histories, and a groundbreaking PBS series, An American Family, that filmed daily life in the Santa Barbara home of the Louds. The author also underscores the importance of documentary film "at a time when the foundations of evidential inquiry are under attack and virtual reality promises to change perceptions of what is accepted as real."

A capacious celebration of film's potential to show us the world.

Kirkus Reviews

In these days of “alternate facts” and “fake news,” this fascinating audiobook offers a history of American documentary filmmaking. It defines the differences between news entertainment and filming what is real—cinema verité. Narrator Bob Souer delivers documentary filmmaker Jon Wilkman’s comprehensive research with authority, sounding knowledgeable and involved. Wilkman chronicles the evolution of the documentary film from its earliest incarnation to the present, carefully putting each into historical context. From nature programs to newsreels to industrials, Souer keeps the information lively. Such notable documentaries as Robert Flaherty’s classic NANOOK OF THE NORTH, representing the best in partially staged docudramas, and the recent works of Michael Moore and Ken Burns are discussed. A treasure trove for cinema students and those interested in the genre. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

MARCH 2020 - AudioFile