Stephen Charbonneau - Böcker

Projecting Race presents a history of educational documentary filmmaking in the postwar era in light of race relations and the fight for civil rights. Drawing on extensive archival research and textual analyses, the volume tracks the evolution of race-based, nontheatrical cinema from its neorealist roots to its incorporation of new documentary techniques intent on recording reality in real time. The films featured include classic documentaries, such as Sidney Meyers's The Quiet One (1948), and a range of familiar and less familiar state-sponsored educational documentaries from George Stoney (Palmour Street, 1950; All My Babies, 1953; and The Man in the Middle, 1966) and the Drew Associates (Another Way, 1967). Final chapters highlight community-development films jointly produced by the National Film Board of Canada and the Office of Economic Opportunity (The Farmersville Project, 1968; The Hartford Project, 1969) in rural and industrial settings. Featuring testimonies from farm workers, activists, and government officials, the films reflect communities in crisis, where organized and politically active racial minorities upended the status quo.Ultimately, this work traces the postwar contours of a liberal racial outlook as government agencies came to grips with profound and inescapable social change.

Projecting Race presents a history of educational documentary filmmaking in the postwar era in light of race relations and the fight for civil rights. Drawing on extensive archival research and textual analyses, the volume tracks the evolution of race-based, nontheatrical cinema from its neorealist roots to its incorporation of new documentary techniques intent on recording reality in real time. The films featured include classic documentaries, such as Sidney Meyers's The Quiet One (1948), and a range of familiar and less familiar state-sponsored educational documentaries from George Stoney (Palmour Street, 1950; All My Babies, 1953; and The Man in the Middle, 1966) and the Drew Associates (Another Way, 1967). Final chapters highlight community-development films jointly produced by the National Film Board of Canada and the Office of Economic Opportunity (The Farmersville Project, 1968; The Hartford Project, 1969) in rural and industrial settings. Featuring testimonies from farm workers, activists, and government officials, the films reflect communities in crisis, where organized and politically active racial minorities upended the status quo.Ultimately, this work traces the postwar contours of a liberal racial outlook as government agencies came to grips with profound and inescapable social change.

In the 1940s, it was 16 mm film. In the 1980s, it was handheld video cameras. Today, it is cell phones and social media. Activists have always found ways to use the media du jour for quick and widespread distribution. InsUrgent Media from the Front takes a look at activist media practices in the 21st century and sheds light on what it means to enact change using different media of the past and present. Chris Robé and Stephen Charbonneau's edited collection uses the term "insUrgent media" to highlight the ways grassroots media activists challenged and are challenging hegemonic norms like colonialism, patriarchy, imperialism, classism, and heteronormativity. Additionally, the term is used to convey the sense of urgency that defines media activism. Unlike slower traditional media, activist media has historically sacrificed aesthetics for immediacy. Consequently, this "run and gun" method of capturing content has shaped the way activist media looks throughout history.With chapters focused on indigenous resistance, community media, and the use of media as activism throughout US history, InsUrgent Media from the Front emphasizes the wide reach media activism has had over time. Visibility is not enough when it comes to media activism, and the contributors provide examples of how to refocus the field not only to be an activist but to study activism as well.