The Right to Play Oneself: Looking Back on Documentary Film

Description

The Right to Play Oneself collects for the first time Thomas Waugh's essays on the politics, history, and aesthetics of documentary film, written between 1974 and 2008. Waugh analyzes an eclectic international selection of films and issues from the 1920s to the present day. The essays provide a transcultural focus, moving from documentaries of the industrialized societies of North America and Europe to those of 1980s India and addressing such canonical directors as Dziga Vertov, Emile de Antonio, Barbara Hammer, Rosa von Praunheim, and Anand Patwardhan.

Thomas Waugh is professor of film studies at Concordia University, Montreal.

"For decades now, Thomas Waugh has worked at the forefront of documentary media studies. This collection of his essays on documentary shows his international range, rigorous historical analysis, commitment to media as an active force for political enlightenment and change, and hallmark wit in full force. Waugh provides a crucial foundation for discerning what's at stake in the evolving world of documentary media." -Chuck Kleinhans, coeditor of JUMP CUT: A Review of Contemporary Media "There is no one quite like Thomas Waugh. As this glorious collection shows, while always alert and responsive to changes in documentary and attitudes towards documentary, he has more than thirty-five years remained true. He is committed to commitment. With his wit, lightly worn self-awareness, and wonderfully uncloying sense of caring, he lets us too see and hear why documentary-and the world-matters." -Richard Dyer, author of The Matter of Images: Essays on Representations