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Events
Jun. 30 | 2012 Bode-Pearson Prize
Nominations for the 2012 Bode-Pearson Prize for Outstanding Contributions to American Studies due
Jun. 30 | 2012 Mary C. Turpie Prize
Nominations for the 2012 Mary C. Turpie Prize for Outstanding Contributions to American Studies Teaching, Advising, and Program Development due
Oct. 1 | Travel Grants for Graduate Students
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Resources: Abstracts of American Studies Dissertations
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Vogels, Jonathan B. "'Outrageous Acts of Faith': The Films of Albert and David Maysles, 1962-1986," American and New England Studies, Boston University, May 2000.
For more than twenty-five years, filmmakers Albert and David Maysles contributed significantly to the history and development of American non-fiction film. Their collaboration from 1962 until David’s death in 1987 consisted of thirteen major works, as well as numerous promotional and industrial films. The Maysles’ particular style of cinéma vérité, which they called “direct cinema,” helped usher in a new, more probing, more realistic form of documentary in the 1960s, and influenced subsequent directors in both fiction and non-fiction film. Their films also offer insights into a range of contemporary topics including materialism, celebrity, the nature of modern art and artistry, and the American family. This dissertation offers careful analysis of all their major films, arguing that the Maysles’ artistic achievements resulted from a particular combination of direct cinema methods, a modernist/humanist aesthetic and a collaborative working process that generally involved one or two other directors and editors. This dissertation also engages the ongoing historical debate over direct cinema’s objectivity, its treatment of its subjects, and its claims to authenticity. It concludes that the “uncontrollable” nature of the Maysles’ filmmaking process necessitated some truth-shaping and imposed subjectivity, especially in the editing phase, as ambiguity and inconsistency are inherent parts of all direct cinema. Nevertheless, the Maysles’ maintained the utmost sensitivity toward the subjects of their films. Ultimately, the Maysles’ achieved success through effective management of all these factors. In so doing they created a unique aesthetic, which has distinct connections to other modernist art forms and which underscores their quest for an authentic means of creative expression.
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