Mint discusses his book screen reality how filmmakers reimagined america which explores the history of nonfiction films to 24 century reality tv. The Burbank Public Library hosted this event and the video provided by the burbank channel. I just wanted to say thank you for coming. Im with the Library Staff and this program is part of a series of programs that the library prisons from time to time on topics related to the film industry. Sometimes we take a look behind the scenes on films in eighth genre are made or explore how a particular movie is made we did this recently by the way with queens of ammunition and we are looking at the film china town just a few weeks ago presenting documentary film making in the spring we hope to present a program on the creation of music scores for film by taking a close look at the jury career of max stein are. Perhaps hollywoods most influential composer. It has been noted that we are presently in a golden age of documentary filmmaking with more documentaries being filmed, screened and seen than ever before. But what impresses me more than that i suppose ive noticed these days advocacy and educational groups eight recent documentary comes up in a day conversation. People reference, it recommended and in particular talk about its defining impact on them. Documentaries are becoming more pervasive and a integral part of our conversations about political and social issues. In fact they are often framing and shaping those conversations. Why this is happening is perhaps something our guests here tonight will talk about. John will come in screening reality is a widespread view of how american truth has been discovered, defined, projected, televised and stream during more than 100 years of dramatic changes and its just some of the challenges ahead for documentary filmmaking at a time when our Public Discourse is fraught with tension and division. As i was reading screening reality and came to the final sentences of one of the chapters, i read some lines that felt to me like a cinematic transition. And it dawned on me that this book is being written by a documentary filmmaker. It occurred to me that maybe the best person to try to make a coherent narrative out of that documentary filmmaking is someone who spent a career making them certainly with over 100 years of documentary films and telling the story a lot of film had to be left as they say on the cutting room floor. That seems something essential to the craft. Someone needed to be familiar and off to keep them in the story and know how to find a narrative line to identify things have changed to note the innovation and the impact of new technologies, and to outline the issues and challenges about screening reality that have seen perennial and endemic to reflect the things that weve always confronted in trying to explain to others what we have experienced is real and true. You can learn a lot in reading this book. Not only about how documentaries were made, but also the very riding of it seems a exhibition of documentary writing skills. Im not sure a subject could have found then john woken. His work has appeared on abc, cbc, pbs, hbo, and at t. Seven part series moguls and movie stars a history of hollywood was nominated for three emmys. His previous book flood path was a amazon Nonfiction Book of the year hes a Founding Member of the documentary film association. Tonight we have as a special guest, talking with john about his book, barr tells, shes the chair of the documentary Film Department at the film academy here in burbank. Shes been involved in making documentary features in television and shes worked as assistant director in a number of projects including Reality Television shows for discovery and National Geographic and she currently teaches screenwriting and documentary writing and producing and she continues to produce and direct. Please join me in welcoming general kent and to the Burbank Public Library. Thank you hubert. Can you hear me okay . What inspired me to write screening reality was a concern about modern arguments, about what some have called a posttruth era. I was concerned that insights into the evolution of not crave fiction from a craft i put in my life pursuing could provide cautions for the future. I take a long view of the subject. As you see on this screen the past in the future and the president can stand side by side. On the left is a kinetoscope, edisons 1890 peep show box. You could listen to a photograph record wilson wearing 19 eighties on the right as a Virtual Reality scene from a film called hunger in los angeles. Whats interesting is to see the oculus rift glasses worn by that woman on the right and the person on the left peering into the peep bucks in some ways weve come a very long way in other ways not much at all. Setting the stage for the veteran of movies the first photographs that moved were created in 1970 by eccentric photographer edward. He took sequential photographs of a running course to prove that for a time all four hosts were off the ground at the same time. Projected in rapid success they produced a illusion of movement so you make a argument that the first movie or product movie from the beginning was a search for truth. Inventors in europe inspired and informed terms edison when he created the first practical Motion Picture machine system. In the 1890s his associate killed dickson shot in a shed the first movie studio. Edison captured black worker sneeze which was the first copyrighted film. Again it was a search for truth. What did the sneeze look like in a way that you can ever see in relief in realtime . In france in 1985 the brothers august and luis louis a and a theater screen that inside a box and a kinetoscope. Their first movies were documentaries scenes of everyday life, images of distant lands. They called them documentaries. When edison premiered his protection of movies in 1986 when critics saw it as his latest toy no one could envision what he would do with us. Could you sit in a theater and watch scenes Street Scenes of cities . You could actually go to the city and go to things and see things. So movie was looked upon as the interesting kind of short term fad. The nonfiction films were called actualities and and present cameramen like Billy Blitzer would make movie history with griffith went to a front of a train and took movie goers on trumps called phantom rides. That early film you see it now almost every day the phantom ride continues and watching some of the spectacular imax film. By 1915 movies were no longer considered a fad. They told compelling fictional narrative but Edward Cordes look for ways to show the world. Consider it a time a vanishing race, but a movie with the people of british columbia, mix of fiction with fact was a Box Office Failure but suggested development to come. News reels approached early filmmaking in world war i they played a role in for the home front but also stirred accusations of propaganda that shattered debates but the rule of documentaries in decades to come. The persuasive power of movies was recognized early, during the first decades of the 20th Century America received a new generation of immigrants. Educational filmmakers added americas asian to classroom curriculum. Films produced by unexpected movie maker henry ford another idea that would produce documentaries and certain in america. By 1922 american movies dominated the world the products of the hollywood dream factories. That year surprise hit started a inuit family in the canadian arctic. Robert as seen here with his collaborative wife francis, produced in the neck of the north, consider the first narrative documentary. Limited by the book he side equipment of the time and inspired by a idealized vision of reality. Flirty admitted that sometimes its necessarily to buy to tell the truth. Husband and wife martin johnson, but there are adventures to movie goers in the 19 twenties and thirties and in particular a inspiration to in new generation of women who aspired for a freer life. In the dark days of the Great DepressionFranklin Roosevelt imitation applied Government Solutions to national. Problems 31yearold film critic was chosen as fdrs. Shooter the plow that broke the plains and the river were lyrical examinations of environmental traditions in the great plains advocating for the new Deal Solutions that could conservative republicans considered socialist if not worse. Truly socialist if not communist a critics of the injustices of the 1930s america came from radical photographers and filmmakers like leo horowitz and paul strand. There daca drama native land made accusations of racism and strong but controlled by Hollywood Studio is hard to get control the and small audiences with audiences that were already convinced. During the thirties and forties the most popular source of non fiction filmmaking was the march of times the march of times featured stories and reenactments and were far from political they had a great influence on the truth during a time of isolationism in the face of a emerging war in europe. Encouraging americans to acknowledge the dangers ahead. When war came to the united states, in 1940, won many of hollywoods greatest directors signed up to play their fictional movie skills to getting documentaries. Lower joe stephens and in the center joe furred and they traded carefully structured scripts that didnt follow standard plotlines. Threats raining reality these filmmakers interacted with the world around them. During world war ii a long tradition of Racial Injustice need to be confronted. The documentary the knee grows soldier was a attempt to include African Americans in the militarys history even as segregation remained in place. After victory, in the philip there be light, hollywood director john houston addressed what committee to paducah to the human mind and spirit his portrayal of the less herbal wick ban for more than 20 years. With the rise of television in the late 1940s and 19 50s, even if air time was mostly consumed by easy to take entertainment, the power of documentaries revealed by the journalism edward r. Murrow and fred friendly and their critical examination of the toxic influence of joseph r. Mccarthy contributed to his downfall but it wasnt long before challenging long form documentaries and cultural programs were headed towards extinction on advertise driven american tv networks. During the tumultuous 1960s, new Technology Made a new approach to documentary film reality possible. Lighter cameras, more light sensitive film stock and easier recording of synchronous sound made cinema verity possible filmmakers bob juul ricky legate upper left and da pennybakerfollows bob dylan. Below him, consulting with al meisel and his brother david. In the lower left, fred wiseman contemplates the next edition of his lengthy can examinations of contemporary life. 1973, american viewers were transfixed by cinema very take captured of the loud family. 12 part series started as a sociological examination of the modern American Family and took on the trappings of a reallife soap opera, again suggesting things to come. Cinema verite brought a new attitude about what a documentary could and should be. Hold out attitude and nonfiction metaphors who were supposed to be good of you are challenged by films like woodstock directed by michael widely. Mixed entertainment with closeup looks at the counterculture and action. Making a documentary required equipment that could be expensive. The cost of film processing and editing added a financial challenge. That began to change with relatively inexpensive videotapes systems. In the 1970s new movement called gorilla tv launched by groups like video freaks and true value television tv. They fought for air time on television and succeeded although the revolution was short lived. Alternate points of view far more lasting secession on Public Television as america became more diverse multicultural. Produced eyes on the prize about the american modern civil rights movement. You cannot do the same for the latin americas civil rights movement. The times of harvey milk brought lgbt stories new respect and relevance. Native americans found their voices on film. Women have been pioneers in the first decades of hollywood history, but by the 1930s movies movers by big business they were shouted. Aside documentaries provided and will documentaries created an alternative for women filmmakers to thrive. Barbara koppel thrived. She captured the power of organized labor and the beginning of the end of the Labor Movement in the 1930s. In the face of influence of cinema vegetative, storable documentaries of canned burns arguably the best known and american documentarian are proud tradition. Based on indepth experience and thoughtful narration. During the 19 eighties and nineties, the television monopoly for serious documentaries by pbs and tell it programs like frontline were was challenged by the Discovery Channel form by John Hendricks seen with the walter consecrate cbs. Perhaps the greatest contribution to the new golden age came from edgy emotional and uninhibited films supervised by hbos director of documentaries, sheila evans. In a time when postmodernism claims truth is the result of multiple perspectives, not objective reality, truth discovered is as important as what it is. This fills charles preconceived notions and the film demanded viewers question. Michael moores politically provocative films or forthright, but he brought something new to his arguments humor. As leftwing fans laughed his opponent struck back with rightwing fell was funded by deep pocket production might money made possible by the Citizens UnitedSupreme Court decision. Day one of the most prolific it documentaries todays alex give many. As films like oscar winning this guys in the room are often based on deaf print journalism. The the days when theaters dominated distribution was eclipsed by broadcast television and then cable, more recently streaming options of Services Like netflix and the use of documentaries to expand growth and influence and impact. Series of making a murderer spans decades with courtroom fiction crime documentary the history of another nonfiction tread explores the is the personalization of filmmaking made possible by inexpensive and easy to use equipment. That made all online distribution alternatives. As early as the 1920s, americans produced their own home movies, and starting in the 1980s, trained documentarians made their lives the subject of films. Like shermans march. Today, everyone has a cell phone and can record and distribute video. With filmmaking experience easy to acquire, audiences can become more sophisticated viewers. Or make truth even more insulated and personal. Turning everyday people into tv stars can be traced to the cinema verite adventures of the lives of the American Family. Today producer mark burnett as is the star reality tv even if viewers know what they are watching is not always on the up and up, many dont care, preferring to be entertained by the truth they believe. The upright is one of the most successful Television Shows crossed the line from credibility appearing artifice to the real world with donald trump becoming the president of the united states. Some documentaries demand viewers confront hard realities. Others are about engaging experiences. The first peak show films were viewed as carnival attractions, glimpses of the unusual. In the attempt to counter the appeal of television, hollywood filmmakers developed largescreen 3d, making documentary watching an immersive expense. So what about the future . Imax could soon be passe if Virtual Reality achieves its promise. To conjure environments are truly interactive. It becomes a challenge of story finding, not storytelling, maintaining a commitment to evidentiary truth will be more difficult than ever and never more essential. That is it. Thank you very much. I look forward to talking with you. [applause] i have to say that i dont. I have to say jones book is is expensive expansive. Yes i read it. All i read every 446 pages. Its an amazing breadth of knowledge and an amazing dip into this. You know its funny, im glad that you did the slide show so that the audience has some context. John youll have to have i guess for me got it. Got it im glad you put up the slide show to give people context because initially had i actually had a sort of conservative approach to the book because i thought to myself how does someone do a history of documentary without including international influences . I was how does that work . Then as i began to read the book up against a little really lean into it, and the moment i leaned into it was the moment he got to also and martin johnston. And the reason was because i remember that as a child, my mother in the sixties was 30 years old, mother of six children, a housewife and she decided to go back to school and become a working mother. Years later, i said to her how did you have the courage to do what you did at the time . She said oh said johnsons books. I married adventure was her big bestseller. This woman whod been documentary filmmaker with her husband went on to write books about. Which i thought was great. How do you think those two, of course rock first robert flirty came first but you talked a little bit about that. How did they open up the world for americans, influencing americans . They are a complicated and interesting couple. Particularly as far as and also, in the 1920s women really had an opportunity been liberated, they got the vote and can work outside the house, or at least potentially could. Or said johnson was this idle for so many women. I tell a story about in one of their films, theres a scene where a line is coming to attack martin and osaka, and she brings out a rifle and shoots the line dead. In