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“YOU’VE GOT TO BE REALISTIC”: THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC CHALLENGES OF DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKERS IN BOULDER AND DENVER, COLORADO by ANTHONY REICHL COLLEBRUSCO B.A., University of Illinois, 2008 A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Colorado in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts Journalism and Mass Communication 2012 This thesis entitled: “You’ve Got to Be Realistic”: The Political and Economic Challenges of Documentary Filmmakers in Boulder and Denver, Colorado written by Anthony Reichl Collebrusco has been approved for the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication Andrew Calabrese Kathleen Ryan Daniel Boord Date The final copy of this thesis has been examined by the signatories, and we Find that both the content and the form meet acceptable presentation standards Of scholarly work in the above mentioned discipline. IRB protocol # ____12-0449_________ Collebrusco, Anthony Reichl (M.A., Journalism and Mass Communication) “You’ve Got to Be Realistic”: The Political and Economic Challenges of Documentary Filmmakers in Boulder and Denver, Colorado Thesis directed by Dr. Andrew Calabrese Documentary film is an increasingly popular genre and due to cheap filmmaking technologies, there are more documentary films being produced than ever before. Yet, despite the democratization of production, documentary filmmakers still face a number of challenges when it comes to funding, producing, and distributing their films. Copyright issues are a popular area of focus, but the cost of copyright clearance is not the only difficulty facing filmmakers. This qualitative study of documentary filmmakers explores the particular challenges faced by documentary filmmakers in Boulder and Denver, Colorado and places them in the context of historical figures and films of the documentary genre. The study finds that in addition to issues pertaining to copyright and the First Amendment, documentary filmmakers face a number of challenges in the documentary film marketplace, including fewer opportunities for public funding, less security in finding distribution, and increased competition from and pressure to adopt the visual language of reality television. This study provides a starting point for future research on documentary film communities and the political economic issues that affect them. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank a number of people that made this project possible. First, thanks to my committee members Dr. Andrew Calabrese, Dr. Kathleen Ryan, and Dr. Daniel Boord for their assistance and support throughout this thesis. Second, thanks to the documentary filmmakers that took the time out of their unbelievably busy schedules to meet and speak with me for this study: Daniel Junge, Abigail Wright, Jeff Orlowski, Steven Hoggard, Daphna Rubin, and Reece Auguiste. I would also like to thank my parents, Mark and Pamm Collebrusco, for their love, support, and understanding, as well as my grandmother Virginia Reichl – I’m fortunate to have inherited from all of them a thirst for knowledge that made a project like this enjoyable at all stages. Last, but by no means least, special thanks to Nicole Gschwind, who was kind and brave enough to accompany me to Boulder and who has offered unfaltering encouragement throughout my graduate career. I am extremely grateful. iv CONTENTS CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................... 1 Arrangement of Thesis ........................................................................ 2 II. A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE DOCUMENTARY GENRE ........................ 5 Introduction ......................................................................................... 5 Fiction and Non-Fiction ...................................................................... 6 Early Developments ............................................................................. 9 Theatrical Documentary After World War II .................................... 21 Documentary Film and Television After World War II ..................... 25 New Developments, New Frontiers ................................................... 29 Unfulfilled Promises .......................................................................... 36 III. POLITICAL ECONOMY OF COMMUNICATION AND DOCUMENTARY FILM ............................................................ 46 Introduction ....................................................................................... 46 The Political Economy of Communication ........................................ 47 The Political Economy of Documentary Film ................................... 53 IV. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND METHODOLOGY ........................... 59 V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ............................................................... 65 Introduction ...................................................................................... 65 The Social and Political Objectives of Documentary Filmmakers .......................................................... 65 Political and Legal Challenges Pertaining to Documentary Film .................................................... 77 Challenges Present in the Current Documentary Film Marketplace ............................ 86 VI. CONCLUSION ..................................................................................... 104 BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………..…………………………………………108 v APPENDIX A. DANIEL JUNGE INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTION .............................. 114 B. ABIGAIL WRIGHT INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTION .......................... 128 C. JEFF ORLOWSKI INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTION ........................... 148 D. STEVEN HOGGARD AND DAPHNA RUBIN INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTION ..................................................... 165 E. REECE AUGUISTE INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTION ......................... 187 vi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Over the past decade, the documentary film genre has been revitalized in the United States. Prior to this sea change, independent documentary film had been a marginal genre, at best – one that, in large part, never gained much attention due to the lack of means of production and distribution.1 In recent years, films such as Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, Sicko, and Capitalism: A Love Story, Morgan Spurlock’s Supersize Me, Davis Guggenheim’s An Inconvenient Truth and many more have drawn crowds to theaters, as well as spurred debates about social and political issues.2 Additionally, documentary television programming, such as Independent Lens and POV, continues to command a sizable audience, and documentary is a popular amateur genre on websites such as YouTube.3 Indeed, the documentary appears to be experiencing a renaissance. The causes of this are complex, but the democratization of filmmaking and distribution technologies is thought to have played a significant role. This increase in documentary films, produced and distributed democratically, has raised hopes for a more robust, vibrant public sphere. Yet, despite naïve assumptions that web technologies will enable a more democratic public sphere, and despite the increasing popularity of the documentary genre, filmmakers still face significant political and economic challenges. One commonly reported challenge faced by independent filmmakers concerns the high price of copyright clearance and its impact on what stories can be told.4 However, it is important to remember that copyright is the product of larger political-economic structures that, to be sure, manifest themselves in other challenges faced by documentary filmmakers. These challenges are an area worthy of more detailed study, one that allows documentary filmmakers themselves to reflect on the nature of the documentary film 1 landscape, the political and economic challenges they encounter, and the relationship between these challenges and the content of their film. This study will focus on documentary filmmakers in the Boulder-Denver, Colorado region, both to help focus this study and act as a starting point for an ethnographic study of filmmakers in this region of the country. The rest of this introduction will provide an overview of the chapters and content to follow. Arrangement of Thesis Immediately following this introduction, Chapter II provides a brief overview of the history of the documentary genre. A full account of the history of the genre would be a prodigious task; indeed, a number of books cited in this chapter have been written already on the subject. The purpose of this chapter is to provide a history of significant figures and films in the genre as well as the political and economic challenges they faced in producing their films. This will undergird the rest of the study by contextualizing the challenges faced by modern documentary filmmakers in relation to the history of documentary film. The first part of this chapter looks at films, people, and developments in the first half of the 20th-century; the second briefly examines developments in theatrical documentary and in television documentary after World War II before describing in greater detail the present documentary landscape and new developments pertaining to technology and genre in the 21st-century. Chapter III looks at the political economy of communication, including an overview of the core objectives of the discipline and a discussion of the political economy of documentary film. The latter includes a brief history of the development of public television as well as an examination of the funding and distribution strategies available to documentary