How Documentaries Went Mainstream: A History, 1960-2022

by Nora Stone Narrated by Emily Durante

Overview

Since the 1960s, documentary films have moved closer to the mainstream, thanks to the popularity of rockumentaries, association with the independent film movement, support from public and cable television, and the rise of streaming video services. Documentary films have become reliable earners at the US box office and ubiquitous on streaming platforms, while historically they existed on the margins of mainstream media.



The growing commercialization of documentary film has not gone unnoticed, but it has not been sufficiently explained. Streaming and the growing interest in reality TV are usually offered as explanations whenever a documentary enters the cultural conversation or breaks a box-office record, but neither of those causes grapple with the overlapping causal mechanisms that commercialized documentary film. How Documentaries Went Mainstream provides a more comprehensive and meaningful periodization of the commercialization of documentary film. Although the commercial ascension of documentary films might seem meteoric, it is the culmination of decades-long efforts that have developed and fortified the audience for documentary features. Author Nora Stone refines rough explanations of these efforts through a robust history of the market for documentary films, using knowledge of film economics and the norms of industry discourse to tell a richer story.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Stone's history of post-vérité U.S. documentary is, simply put, the book I've been waiting for. For too long, documentary histories have focused primarily on makers and movements, but Stone weaves an account of the film markets, documentary institutions, and shifts in film culture driving documentary's increased public visibility. Whether discussing canonical works, box office flops, public television broadcasts, or popular documentary hits, this book provides a narrative that reframes and illuminates the major changes in the documentary landscape over the last half century." — Chris Cagle, Associate Professor, Temple University, Film and Media Arts

"How Documentaries Went Mainstream explores the tension between public service and commodity exchange in the documentary film market by tracing the shifting industrial trends in documentary distribution and exhibition between the 1960s and today. Deftly researched and incisively written, Stone's book offers an important intervention in the history of documentary by focusing on the mode's industrial concerns. Essential reading for anyone interested in how and why documentary has come to occupy such a prolific and lucrative corner of the media market in recent years." — Kristen Fuhs, Professor of Media Studies, Woodbury University

"Stone's work is an essential reference for anyone interested in the development of American documentary film." — Will DiGravio, Cineaste

"In this refreshing addition to the history of nonfiction film, Stone foregrounds distribution and circulation as the locus of documentary's influence, tracing evolutions in infrastructure, film culture, and market machinations to explain the genre's commercial transformation." — Devin Thomas, Film Quarterly

"The value of documentaries as commodities and as public services coexists across the world. The core of Nora Stone's painstakingly researched book How Documentaries Went Mainstream: A History, 1960-2022 reflects this conflict, as it traces the development of documentaries from Hollywoods periphery to the mainstay of Internet streaming services. Stone's insightful contribution to the history of nonfiction cinema places distribution and circulation front and center, demonstrating how changes in infrastructure, film culture, and market dynamics have shaped the commercial development of the genre. The book is organized chronologically, with each chapter concentrating on a distinct period in the growth and spread of documentaries and the networks that support them." — Muhammad Asad Latif, Journal of Popular Culture

Product Details

BN ID:	2940159887429
Publisher:	HighBridge Company
Publication date:	06/06/2023
Edition description:	Unabridged

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