The theme for the DoubleTake Documentary Film Festival this year is: “How much reality can you handle?” But the real question for the 14-member committee responsible for selecting the 57 films in competition was, “How many documentary films can you handle?” Filmmakers from around the world submitted 531 films this year, a substantial increase over […]
Maria Pramaggiore
Posted inArt
Praising James Agee
In a 1971 interview, Walker Evans said that he thought of his work as “documentary style” photography. He argued that art could never be the equivalent of a document because art is not useful. This view seems consistent with Evans’ stated desire to reject propaganda in favor of “pure record” during his stint as a […]
Posted inArt
Role Reversal
Burning Coal Theatre Company’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin “isn’t really a play,” according to director Randolph Curtis Rand, “it’s an issue.” Rand and co-author Floraine Kay blend sentiment and irony, melodrama and burlesque to probe race, power and performance in American culture. When you begin to disentangle entrenched fantasies of racial difference in the United States, […]