Jürgen Böttcher and Documentary Film introduces the reader to this east-German filmmaker who, despite having made 40 films from the east side of the Berlin Wall, is practically unknown.
Through the comparison of films made in the same year, one by an American and one by Böttcher, the author places him as ahead of his time in regards to technology, content, and style, and neck-and-neck with contemporary American filmmakers in cinéma vérité/direct cinema. The book moves beyond Böttchers dramatic biography to explore his role in the history of film. Was it actually the Germans who created sync sound for documentary? When and how were women featured?
Offering a concise journey through the history of documentary film within this cultural context, but also a deep-dive into specific case-studies that show the nuances and complexities of classifying film texts, this volume will interest students and scholars of film studies, German cinema, cinéma vérité, film production, film theory, and world cinema.
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: The Biography of Jürgen Böttcher, Filmmaker, and STRAWALDE, Artist
Chapter 3: Dramaturgy and Structure in Observational Documentary in 1962
Jürgen Böttchers Ofenbauer (Furnace Builders) and Robert Drew and Richard
Leacocks The Chair
Chapter 4: The Representation of Women in Observational Cinema Richard
Leacock and Joyce Chopras Happy Mothers Day (Directors Cut) and Jürgen
Böttchers Stars, 1963
Chapter 5: Jürgen Böttcher and Frederick Wiseman Institutions and Workplace
in Observational Documentary Films in 1984
Chapter 6: Jürgen Böttcher and Barbara Kopple and Reform in
Participatory/Reflexive Documentary in 1990
Chapter 7: Conclusion Documentary Contrasts in Structure, Subject, Place,
and Change in Group Identity, and an Expanded Definition of Documentary Modes
Elizabeth Daggett Matar is Assistant Professor in the College of Mass Media and Communication at American University in the Emirates, teaching media production, and adjunct professor at Middlesex University, Dubai teaching immersive storytelling. In 2011, Matar was named an "expert" in documentary film by the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Cultural Affairs' Documentary Showcase Program. She completed this work as part of a Doctorate in Media and Communication at Universität Hamburg.
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