Image-Documents: Found and Appropriated Images in Documentary Cinema A Dissertation SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Benedict H. Stork IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY John Mowitt, PhD May 2014 © 2014 Benedict H. Stork Acknowledgements A dissertation is a strange thing. The culmination of a string of encounters and acts, choices and chances, stops and starts. Writing a dissertation is often isolating but it is also a continuous reminder that you are never alone with your thoughts. Like the “image- documents” discussed in the following pages, sources for the concepts, words, and feelings assembled in this document are difficult to identify; they are sometimes, whenever possible, attributed to the appropriate personages but even these contributions mingle with those unnamed and unidentified collaborators I’ve appropriated to myself. Where they stop and “I” begin is almost impossible to discern. Here is a simple formula, though: you can find me in the mistakes, infelicities, awkward formulations, and questionable claims. Where the ideas and images stand out, when the evidence and facts take hold, the assemblage is at work. Nonetheless, thank you, first, to those whose names are affixed to this document and made it possible: Jonathan Kahana, whose generous participation on this project is evidence of his commitment to continuing and expanding documentary scholarship; Richard Leppert, who never wavered in his enthusiasm and support for both the work and its author (despite my many failings), and was always ready with thoughtful, practical, and timely advice; Cesare Casarino, whose classes, conversations, and comments inspired me to follow my conceptual tendencies (perhaps to his chagrin) and risk running ahead of my abilities. And thank you to my advisor, John Mowitt, who gave me the space to develop my ideas, the support to allow them to change, and the guiding hand to connect them; it is only by way of his probing responses, prodigious references, and patient, generous readings that this dissertation was produced. I am also indebted to Professor Gilbert Rodman for assisting with an earlier iteration of the dissertation. In addition, I would also like to thank Hilary Neroni of the University of Vermont who first encouraged me to both read and teach difficult texts and to trust the effort of analysis, rather than the ease of familiarity. Finally, this dissertation and my thinking owe a tremendous debt to Bill Nichols of San Francisco State University, who would surely find his name too frequently invoked here but would graciously accept it as a testament to his influence in the field of documentary studies. Across two universities, many conferences, and too many (or not enough) drinks I have had the great fortune of meeting and collaborating with peers whose intelligence, dedication, and thoughtfulness exceed by an incalculable amount the place the institution assigns “graduate students.” Though you are mostly unnamed in this text, in a certain sense this is the cadre I most recognize in the unruly and resistant force of image- documents. Singling out a few names from this group: thank you to Thomas Cannavino, Christian Haines, Garnet Kindervater, and Katherine Kindervater at the University of Minnesota; your friendship, wit, and warmth made these Minnesota winters enjoyable, regardless of the mercury’s position. Also, thank you to Ricardo Rebolledo, who is even more underappreciated than the graduate students he associates with. And thank you to Kevin McDonald and Kristopher Fallon who (have been) stuck with me since our brief i time together in the Bay Area nearly a decade ago and who have read many iterations of this project since then; I couldn’t have finished without your help. In a process that is too often tortuous and a profession that is frequently capricious with its evaluations and careless with the talents of its members, I am happy to have the privilege of meeting you and benefitting from the opportunity to think together. Thank you to my family: my parents, Helen and Gerry, to whom this dissertation is dedicated; to my sister, Amy, who I have followed across the country more than once now; to my sister, Kat, with whom I share more than we realize; and to my nephews, Ben and Austin, whose path into adulthood frightens, inspires, and entertains me (something, I hope, they would appreciate). Thank you also to my Seattle families: Lee, Mary, and Aleah, Annie, Gordon, and Merrick. Finally, thank you to Aly Pennucci. This dissertation is but one part of the life I owe to you. Thankful as I am for your decisive help getting through this undertaking (it surely would not have happened otherwise), I am most thankful that with it done I can spend more time with you. I would never want my thoughts to be without you and could never separate them from your brilliance, strength, compassion, and love. Thank you. ii Dedication For Helen Marie and Gerard Stork, thank you for a life full of pictures and words. iii Abstract Image-Documents: Found and Appropriated Images in Documentary Cinema is a conceptualization of the use of found and appropriated images—ranging from home movies to Hollywood films, from archival footage to television news—as the core of an immanent theory of documentary cinema. Through a series of conceptual encounters with central terms in documentary history and scholarship, this dissertation counters the rote critique of found footage as merely a convenient spectacle onto which documentaries graft their arguments. Combining readings of film theory, documentary criticism, continental philosophy, and contemporary theory with close analyses of specific films, Image-Documents at once lays bare the apparatus of documentary and its use of images to make truth claims, while redefining documentary outside the imperative to “represent reality.” In place of the reified oscillation between critiquing documentary’s rhetoric of objectivity and embrace of reflexive tactics and ethical witnessing, this dissertation argues for an understanding of documentary as a mode of expression irreducible to the accurate capture of “real” events. Image-documents are the unruly theoretical objects that articulate the documentary potential immanent to all images. iv Table of Contents List of Figures.................................................................................................................... vi Introduction: From Found and Appropriated Images to Image-Documents ...................... 1 Chapter 1: Image, Document, Image-Documents............................................................. 14 Chapter 2: Image-Documents in Use: A theory of documentary value............................ 74 Chapter 3: Documentary Enunciation: Indirect discourse, third person statements, and the murmur of image-documents.......................................................................................... 135 Chapter 4: Image-Documents and History as Immanent Cause ..................................... 204 Conclusion: Image-documents as Property, Currency, and the Speculative Future....... 275 Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 290 v List of Figures Fig. 1.1 The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu: Ceausescu haggles with a shopkeeper ........................................................................................................................................... 40 Fig. 1.2 The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu: The leader as bread inspector......... 40 Fig. 1.3 The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu: Flowers from commerce ................ 42 Fig. 1.4 The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu: A cursory inspection ....................... 42 Fig. 1.5 The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu: A knowing smirk ............................ 42 Fig. 1.6 The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty: Laboring under the yoke of the landowner 66 Fig. 1.7 The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty: Tea time for the Governor and his family .. 65 Fig. 1.8 The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty: Immobile and mobile property................... 66 Fig. 1.9 The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty: Service emerging from the background ...... 66 Fig 2.1 Grizzly Man: “…glorious improvised moments.”................................................ 82 Fig. 2.2 Grizzly Man: Quiet on the set............................................................................ 106 Fig. 2.3 Grizzly Man: Nature, ready for its close-up, Mr. Herzog.................................. 107 Fig. 2.4 Grizzly Man: Staring into a blurry horizon....................................................... 133 Fig. 3.1 The Fog of War: Down the telephonic chain of command.............................. 164 Fig. 3.2 The Fog of War: Overeager sonar men ............................................................. 164 Fig. 3.3 The Fog of War: No doubting allowed.............................................................. 164 Fig. 3.4 The Fog of War: Under the yoke, in front of the camera ................................. 199 Fig. 3.5 The Fog of War: Waving in the face of death ................................................... 199 Fig. 4.1 In the Year of the Pig: The essential life of the peasantry................................. 248 Fig. 4.2 In the Year of the Pig: Putting his thumb in the anecdote ................................. 250 Fig. 4.3 In the Year of the Pig: An unfair fare ................................................................ 267 vi Fig. 4.4