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ReFocus: The American Directors Series

ReFocus: The Films of Barbara Kopple

Edited by Jeff Jaeckle and Susan Ryan

Format

£100.00

In stock

About this book

A collection of critical essays on Barbara Kopple: director, documentarian and female filmmaking pioneer

As the first woman to win two Best Documentary Oscars and the recipient of numerous lifetime achievement awards, Barbara Kopple deserves scholarly attention. Two of her early documentaries, Harlan County USA and American Dream, not only won Academy Awards but are foundational within the study of documentary as a whole.

In ReFocus: The Films of Barbara Kopple, a range of international scholars trace Kopple’s career to date, analysing her contributions in the contexts of funding, style, production and reception, and examining her films’ interrogations of social class using the lenses of gender, sexuality and race. In a shifting digital media landscape, Kopple’s critical reputation is also assessed, alongside her enduring influence on contemporary filmmakers.

Contributors
  • Patricia Aufderheide, American University in Washington, D.C.
  • Jaimie Baron, University of Alberta and director of the Festival of (In)appropriation
  • Gregory Brown, Valdosta State University
  • John Corner, Leeds University
  • Leger Grindon, Middlebury College in Vermont
  • Kate Hearst, historian, scholar and filmmaker
  • Jeff Jaeckle, Portland Community College
  • E. Ann Kaplan, Stony Brook University
  • Heather McIntosh, Minnesota State University at Mankato
  • Betsy A. McLane, independent scholar, author and Director Emerita of the International Documentary Association
  • Bill Nichols, San Francisco State University
  • Augusta Palmer, filmmaker and St. Francis College
  • Paula Rabinowitz, University of Minnesota
  • Susan Ryan, The College of New Jersey
  • Thomas Zaniello, Northern Kentucky University

Reviews

With over a dozen contributors weighing in on Kopple's methodologies, influences and history, not to mention the history of documentary film itself, this volume has something for everyone...a welcome addition to the bookshelves of film schools, film scholars and film aficionados alike.
The Films of Barbara Kopple offers a thorough dissection of this formative figure in documentary filmmaking, while assessing Kopple’s embrace of other genres and storytelling modes. [...] In turn, The Films of Barbara Kopple is a balanced and well-researched addition to the ReFocus series and cements Kopple’s stature as one of film’s more versatile and persistent documentarians.
This exceptional and timely collection provides a perfect companion to the films of Barbara Kopple,　one of the most accomplished documentary filmmakers of our time. The editors have done a superlative job drawing together a series of compelling and　original essays from a range of international　scholars in documentary film studies and beyond, resulting in a work that　makes its mark as a　key addition to the history of　activist cinema. The Films of Barbara Kopple　offers varied and in-depth contexts and analyses of one of the most politically engaged and passionate filmmakers of her generation.
Table of contents

Notes on contributors

Foreword, Bill Nichols

Barbara Kopple: A Career of Personal Crises and Creative Tensions, Jeff Jaeckle

Historical Contexts & Cultural Commentary

Harlan County USA

and the Documentary Form: A 40-Year Retrospective, E. Ann Kaplan

American Dream

in God’s Country: Odysseys in Documentary, Hospitality, Place, Paula Rabinowitz

The Kopple Effect: Women Directing Documentaries, Tom Zaniello

Gender Agency: Harlan County USA, Shut Up & Sing, and This is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous, Kate Hearst

The Peekskill Projects: Race, Riots, and Paul Robeson, Jeff Jaeckle

Celebrity and Vulnerability in Three Documentaries by Barbara Kopple, Heather McIntosh

Technique: Interviews, Music, Funding, and Fiction Filmmaking

Fallen Champ

: Poetics of the Documentary Interview, Leger Grindon

Which Side Are You On: An Intersectional Approach to Music in Three Films by Barbara Kopple, Augusta Palmer 　

Blurring Lines and Intersecting Realities in Barbara Kopple’s Fictional Work, Susan Ryan

Kopple’s Work Within the Changing Documentary Business Ecology, Patricia Aufderheide

Exposing the Lethal Gaze in Shut Up & Sing and Running from Crazy, Jaimie Baron

Impacts: Critical Reception and Ongoing Influence

Barbara Kopple: Acolyte to Leading Light, Betsy A. McLane

Kopple & Her Critics, Gregory Brown

Afterword: Getting Inside, John Corner

About the contributors

Jeff Jaeckle

Jeff Jaeckle is the editor of Film Dialogue (Wallflower Press, 2013) and co-editor (with Sarah Kozloff) of ReFocus: The Films of Preston Sturges (EUP, 2015). His scholarship on language in cinema, aesthetics and Hollywood film has also appeared in Film Quarterly, New Review of Film and Television Studies and Quarterly Review of Film and Video. He holds a doctorate from the University of Texas-Austin and teaches at Portland Community College.

Susan Ryan

Susan Ryan holds a doctorate in Cinema Studies from NYU and teaches documentary production and film studies at The College of New Jersey. She worked with Barbara Kopple for several years as a producer and archival researcher on Fallen Champ, Defending Our Daughters, My Generation, A Conversation with Gregory Peck, and several other documentaries. She is also the producer/director of From the ‘Burg to the Barrio (2012).

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