October 23, 1998

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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