THE ESSAY FILM

The essay film has proved even more peripatetic: where noir was formulated from the films of a determinate historical period and resolutely unfixed in time. The other key inheritance the essay film received from the classical montage tradition was a progressive spirit. What will distinguish the essa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sight and sound (London) 2013-08, Vol.23 (8), p.44-52
Main Author: Tracy, Andrew
Format: Magazinearticle
Language:English
Subjects:
Documentaries
Documentary films
Essay-Videos
Film & television production
Film directors
Filming
Motion picture directors & producers
Traditions
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Summary:The essay film has proved even more peripatetic: where noir was formulated from the films of a determinate historical period and resolutely unfixed in time. The other key inheritance the essay film received from the classical montage tradition was a progressive spirit. What will distinguish the essay film is not only its ability to make the image but also its ability to interrogate it, to dispel the illusion of its sovereignty and see it as part of a matrix of meaning that extends beyond the screen. No less than were the montagists, the film-essayists seek the motive forces of modern society not by crystallizing eternal verities in powerful images but by investigating that ever-shifting, kaleidoscopic relationship between the regime of images and the realities it both reveals and occludes. Here, Tracy features several essay films.
ISSN:0037-4806
2515-5164