The Camera as Conscience: How Social Issues Inspire Moving Documentaries

By PATRICIA AUFDERHEIDE

Just when it seemed as if we were on the verge of entertaining ourselves to death -- to paraphrase the media critic Neil Postman -- or at least zapping ourselves into a multichannel stupor, the social-issue documentary is making a comeback.

In the 1960s and 1970s, documentaries rode a wave of social activism into theaters, onto television screens, and even into awards ceremonies. We had the works of brothers

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Past Coverage

Documentaries Cast a Cold Eye on Corporate America - May 7, 2004
Film Promoted as Inside Look at Hazing Is Attacked for Including Staged Scenes - February 12, 1999
Border Crossings: the New Middle Eastern Cinema - November 25, 2005
An Insider's View of 'Scottsboro' - March 30, 2001
The Sounds of Silents - October 12, 2001

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