Jürgen Böttcher and Documentary Film: Documentaries, Contemporaries, History

by Elizabeth Daggett Matar

Overview

Jürgen Böttcher and Documentary Film introduces the reader to this east-German filmmaker who, despite having made 40 films from the east side of the Berlin Wall, is practically unknown.

Through the comparison of films made in the same year, one by an American and one by Böttcher, the author places him as ahead of his time in regards to technology, content, and style, and neck-and-neck with contemporary American filmmakers in cinéma vérité/direct cinema. The book moves beyond Böttcher’s dramatic biography to explore his role in the history of film. Was it actually the Germans who created sync sound for documentary? When and how were women featured?

Offering a concise journey through the history of documentary film within this cultural context, but also a deep-dive into specific case-studies that show the nuances and complexities of classifying film texts, this volume will interest students and scholars of film studies, German cinema, cinéma vérité, film production, film theory, and world cinema.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781032701240
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	01/12/2024
Series:	Routledge Focus on Film Studies
Pages:	124
Product dimensions:	5.44(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Elizabeth Daggett Matar is Assistant Professor in the College of Mass Media and Communication at American University in the Emirates, teaching media production, and adjunct professor at Middlesex University, Dubai teaching immersive storytelling. In 2011, Matar was named an "expert" in documentary film by the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Cultural Affairs' Documentary Showcase Program. She completed this work as part of a Doctorate in Media and Communication at Universität Hamburg.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction 

Chapter 2: The Biography of Jürgen Böttcher, Filmmaker, and STRAWALDE, Artist 

Chapter 3: Dramaturgy and Structure in Observational Documentary in 1962 — Jürgen Böttcher’s Ofenbauer (Furnace Builders) and Robert Drew and Richard Leacock’s The Chair

Chapter 4: The Representation of Women in Observational Cinema — Richard Leacock and Joyce Chopra’s Happy Mother’s Day (Director’s Cut) and Jürgen Böttcher’s Stars, 1963

Chapter 5: Jürgen Böttcher and Frederick Wiseman — Institutions and Workplace in Observational Documentary Films in 1984 

Chapter 6: Jürgen Böttcher and Barbara Kopple and Reform in Participatory/Reflexive Documentary in 1990 

Chapter 7: Conclusion — Documentary Contrasts in Structure, Subject, Place, and Change in Group Identity, and an Expanded Definition of Documentary Modes