Abstract
As the documentary film moved from a production medium of recording on celluloid and exhibition in cinemas to the digital world of recording on computer chips and exhibition on laptops and mobile devices, the production capabilities and audience reach expanded exponentially. The traditional documentary film is still being made today, but the affordances of the Internet now provide a wealth of production and dissemination opportunities, reimagining how documentary film stories are told and how to engage its audiences in more profound activist ways. This chapter examines the affordances that best advance the activist intentions of the social issue documentary and explores what new technology and approaches in the digital world can accelerate and amplify these goals.
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Notes
- 1.
“Engagement Strategists,” pbs.org. Accessed September 2, 2015. http://www.pbs.org/pov/filmmakers/engagement-strategists.php#.VedcF_lViko.
- 2.
- 3.
According to a report made by CBC News, June 21, 2018, Canada’s federal government budgeted $4.3 million to restore prison farms in the Joyceville and Collins Bay institutions in Kingston, Ontario. “Feds release details on plans to restore prison farm program at Joyceville and Collins Bay institutions,” CBC News, June 21, 2018. Accessed August 24, 2018. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/kingston-prison-farm-cows-goats-1.4716232. In a September 10, 2018, phone call with the office of Mark Holland, parliamentary secretary to the minister of public safety, a spokesman said there was no influence of the film ’ Til the Cows Come Home regarding the government’s decision to restore prison farms.
- 4.
Stated in a classroom lecture of the course Contemporary Documentary taught by Seth Feldman, August 18, 2015, York University, Toronto, Canada.
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Filmography
’ Til the Cows Come Home, Director, Lenny Epstein. Telltales Media and Milkpail Productions, 2014.
Blackfish, Director, Gabriela Cowperthwaite. Manny O Productions, 2013.
Sin by Silence, Director, Olivia Klaus. Orange, CA: Quiet Little Place Productions, 2009.
The Corporation, Director, Harold Crooks. Big Picture Media Corporation. 2003.
The Price We Pay, Director, Harold Crooks. InformAction Films, 2015.
Urge Gov Brown to Pass AB 593 & AB 1593. n.d. SinBySilenceDoc, 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp3dbPziiu8&t=2s.
VTR St-Jacques, Director, Bonnie Sherr Klein. National Film Board of Canada, 1969.
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Terry, M. (2020). The Documentary’s Digital Turn. In: The Geo-Doc. Palgrave Studies in Media and Environmental Communication. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32508-4_5
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