Writing about documentary film requires locating sources to understand how others have understood the film and its relationship to truth, the profilmic world, and social reality.
In this exercise, you will learn how to locate sources for a specific film. You will also learn how to use those sources for your essay. At the end of this guide, you will learn to use those sources for writing an analysis of a film.
As an example, I use the film The Atomic Cafe (Kevin Rafferty, Jayne Loader, Pierce Rafferty, 1982) for this exercise
It’s a good first step to start with the Wikipedia article for the film.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Atomic_Cafe
You can find a References section at the end of most Wikipedia articles. Look at those sources and find if they are useful for you.
In this particular example, there are many useful sources, but I selected a few to keep thing manageable.
Another useful source is the New York Times Film Reviews database. It is available at https://www.nytimes.com/reviews/movies.
As a Pratt student, you can get access through NY Times in Education at no cost. See the following site for details: https://nytimesineducation.com/access-nyt/pratt-institute-brooklyn-ny/
The New York Times film review of The Atomic Cafe is available at https://www.nytimes.com/1982/03/17/movies/documentary-on-views-about-atom-bomb.html.
In this review, Vincent Canby surveys some of the footage that the filmmakers used, from both official government films and artifacts from the 1940s and 1950s, to give the reader a sense of the casual attitude Americans had about the nuclear bomb and the threat it posed to human life. But Canby also addresses that the uncritical attitudes that were surfacing in the 1980s, when the film was released. He writes, that the film "could not be more timely. It provides some of the background for what appears to be a continuation of what might be called nuclear-war optimism today - the unprovable assumption that nuclear wars can be fought on a limited scale without making the planet uninhabitable." He praises the film as being "remarkably well edited" and that it "deserves national attention" after its limited release at New York's Film Forum in March 1982.
The Pratt Libraries website is a good place to find sources.
My search yielded eighteen (18) results, although some of these were copies of the film that the library has in its collection. Those don't count for our research, although you should, of course, study the film.
There was also one result in German, which I don't read. The remaining results were in English.
Many sources are available through Pratt
In my search results, there were some results that were available only through ILL (Interlibrary Loan). That is a little inconvenient for this exercise so I won't use those. But you can certainly request item through that service if you want to.
The most convenient way to gather sources is to select ones that are available as Full Text online. You can apply a filter to only include "Full Text" sources.
Here's three sources that I selected:
As you review your sources, pay attention to publication date.
DeLoach, Douglass. “The Atomic Cafe.” Art Papers, vol. 6, no. 5, Sept. 1982, p. 31. Permalink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=asu&AN=49119990&authtype=sso&custid=s8440772&site=eds-live&scope=site&authtype=sso&custid=s8440772
In this review of the film, in advance of its opening in Atlanta, Georgia, in July 1982, Douglass DeLoach discusses how this film started as a compilation film looking at propaganda and then evolved into the propaganda surrounding the atomic bomb. He almost notes how the film comes at a time when the public was increasingly critical of the threat of nuclear bombs and the escalation of the Cold War conflict between the US and the USSR, both representing the biggest nuclear powers in the world at the time.
Mielke, Bo. “Rhetoric and Ideology in the Nuclear Test Documentary.” Film Quarterly, vol. 58, no. 3, Spring 2005, pp. 28–37. Permalink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f3h&AN=16829092&authtype=sso&custid=s8440772&site=eds-live&scope=site&authtype=sso&custid=s8440772
In this essay about nuclear test documentary films, Bo Mielke reviews The Atomic Cafe and other films of nuclear test footage to show that the film has aged well, except for some moments, noting that certain “moments” in the choice of footage depicting soldiers “seem a bit mean-spirited and historically smug.” Mielke also notes that the film is right to be critical of the mania surrounding nuclear bomb tests, noting that “even though the violence of bomb testing seems condensed into a few frames of a mushroom cloud, it is a violence that lingers and kills in the present day and far beyond.” As with the previous source, there appears to be a collective awakening about the threat of nuclear war and the danger it posed at the same time that propaganda films were minimizing or even obscuring that threat.
Hatch, Robert. “Films.” Nation, vol. 234, no. 13, Apr. 1982, pp. 411–13. Permalink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edb&AN=11161991&authtype=sso&custid=s8440772&site=eds-live&scope=site&authtype=sso&custid=s8440772
In this review of The Atomic Cafe, which includes several other films released at the time, Hatch notes that the film includes footage about the nuclear bomb that contained “cynical lies, pious hypocrisy, vulgar patriotism, and ludicrously bad practical advice… [inducing] incredulous laughter and snorts of disgust.” The review, like the other sources of the time, refer to the current situation regarding the Reagan administration’s escalation of the Cold War and the attendant threat of nuclear war. Hatch writes, “the Reagan Administration has revived Civil Defense and is trying once again to convince us that with a little foresight and some lead-impregnating garments, there will be enough of us to bury the dead.”
A way to understand the sources is to summarize them.
If you find a lot of sources, try to categorize them so you can figure out what narrative you want to tell about them.
When you read your sources, it’s a good idea to compare their ideas against the argument you are going to make in your essay. Oftentimes, this might mean simply considering their perspective and how it might change or confirm your own thinking.
As you read your sources, you should make notes of what strikes you as interesting or relevant for your research.
It’s important to read a source more than once so you can evaluate its argument against other sources.
Take the following steps during the first reading:
In your second reading, do the following so you can understand the reading and what will really matter to you.
Just like you read a source twice, it’s a good practice to watch a film more than once.
In the first screening:
In the second screening:
You should use your sources to support your own voice. Maintain that voice so that you speak for the sources, not the other way around.
Writing a thesis requires making an original “informed argument” about all the research you’ve undertaken. Don’t simply reproduce the argument of the first source you study.
Be sure to limit your sources that are relevant to your topic.
Lastly, track your sources and revise your working argument as you write your essay.
When writing your essay, be sure to cite your sources.
Use one of these citation methods
Personally, I’m not that strict about formatting citations as long as I can figure out how to find it.
Prepare a bibliography of your sources.
Consult the Pratt Library Lib Guide on Managing References at https://libguides.pratt.edu/citing/managing-references
Use bibliographic management software. The Pratt Library recommends using Zotero. Pratt community members get unlimited cloud storage by creating a zotero account with your @pratt.edu email address. You can register for an account at https://www.zotero.org/user/register