ABOUT THIS BOOK

Since the late 1960s, American film and video makers of all genres have been fascinated with themes of self and identity. Though the documentary form is most often used to capture the lives of others, Jim Lane turns his lens on those media makers who document their own lives and identities. He looks at the ways in which autobiographical documentaries—including Roger and Me, Sherman’s March, and Silverlake Life—raise weighty questions about American cultural life. What is the role of women in society? What does it mean to die from AIDS? How do race and class play out in our personal lives? What does it mean to be a member of a family? Examining the history, diversity, and theoretical underpinnings of this increasingly popular documentary form, Lane tracks a fundamental transformation of notions of both autobiography and documentary.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Jim Lane is executive director of the Emerson College Los Angeles Center. A filmmaker since 1982, his documentaries include Long Time No See, Women of Prague, Background Action, I Am Not an Anthropologist, and East Meets West.

REVIEWS

"The autobiographical documentary is one of the most significant paths taken by American filmmakers in recent years, and Jim Lane is the ideal person to take on this important subject. A scrupulous film historian with a sophisticated grasp of the theoretical issues raised and addressed by autobiographical documentary films, he is also a gifted filmmaker personally committed to the movement he is studying. He writes with singular authority about films whose aspiration, and achievement, is to be at once subjective and objective."—William Rothman, University of Miami, author of The "I" of the Camera

"Analysis of some of the most interesting documentary work of the past three decades. A must-read for anyone studying or making documentary."—Julia Lesage, University of Oregon, co-editor of Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media

"Such fine and sustained work on the documentary film as autobiography is way overdue. Exploring the convergences of autobiography and film theory, Jim Lane makes a major contribution to the whole field of autobiographical studies, demonstrating in the process what significant work autobiography does in the history and culture of our time."—Susanna Egan, Mirror Talk: Genres of Crisis in Contemporary Autobiography

TABLE OF CONTENTS






Illustrations                                            ix
Acknowledgments                                          xi
Introduction                                              3
I The Convergence of Autobiography and Documentary:
Historical Connections                                I I
2 David Holzman's Diary: An Unlikely Beginning           33
3 The Journal Entry Approach: Narrative, Chronology, and
Autobiographical Claims                               48
4 Autobiographical Portraiture: Family and Self          94
5 Women and the Autobiographical Documentary: Historical
Intervention, Writing, Alterity, and the Dialogic Engagement  145
Afterword                                               I9I
Notes                                                   197
Filmography                                             222
Works Cited                                             224
Index                                                   233

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