Publisher Description

In Screening Social Justice, award-winning anthropologist Sherry B. Ortner presents an ethnographic study of Brave New Films, a nonprofit film production company that makes documentaries intended to mobilize progressive grassroots activism. Ortner positions the work of the company within a tradition of activist documentary filmmaking and within the larger field of "alternative media" that is committed to challenging the mainstream media and telling the truth about the world today. The company's films cover a range of social justice issues, with particular focus on the hidden workings of capitalism, racism, and right-wing extremism. Beyond the films themselves, Brave New Films is also famous for its creative distribution strategies. All of the films are available for free on YouTube. Central to the intention of promoting political activism, the films circulate through networks of other activist and social justice organizations and are shown almost entirely in live screenings in which the power of the film is amplified. Ortner takes the reader inside both the production process and the screenings to show how a film can be made and used to mobilize action for a better world.

Author Biography

Sherry B. Ortner is Distinguished Research Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the author of Not Hollywood: Independent Film at the Twilight of the American Dream, Anthropology and Social Theory: Culture, Power, and the Acting Subject, and New Jersey Dreaming: Capital, Culture, and the Class of '58, all also published by Duke University Press.

Table of Contents

Preface  ix
Acknowledgments  xi
Introduction  1
1. Brave New Films in the Mediascape  19
2. Critical Agency: The Power of Truth  31
3. Networked Agency: The Power of the Social  52
4. Affective Agency: The Power of the Film  73
5. The Impact Question, and Conclusions  97
Notes  113
Filmography  121
References  127
Index

Review

"[A] fascinating ethnographic study of a nonprofit production company. . . . Ortner provides extensive research on the history of activist documentary filmmaking. The book's compelling exploration of the documentary Suppressed: The Fight To Vote reveals how it evokes various emotions during a film screening and examines its call to action. Ortner's deep dive is so effective in describing the film's storytelling method that it may inspire readers to seek out Suppressed and other Brave New Films works." -- Anjelica Rufus-Barnes * Library Journal *
"Ortner's analysis encourages readers to critically assess media accounts and consider the ethical implications of documentary activity. Focusing on bold new films, the book offers valuable insight into the production process, the challenges faced by activist filmmakers, and the strategies they use to effectively convey their message." -- Kaniphnath Malhari Kudale * Social Identities *
"Screening Social Justice is not a traditional study of film. What makes this book particularly valuable is Ortner's interrogation of terms such as truth, affect, and agency in the context of documentary film. For some 23 years BNF has produced films on a wide range of topics—including the war on democratic governance, systematic racism, xenophobia, and the abuses of capitalism—and Ortner introduces the reader to the company's corpus. She concludes by addressing the notion of impact, which is arguably one of the driving forces in the renaissance of documentary filmmaking in the first decades of the 21st century. Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty; professionals."
  -- G. R. Butters Jr. * Choice *

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