Music and Documentaries

We will focus on the status and analysis of music documentaries concerning, for example, musicians/groups, styles, instruments, historical periods, recording labels. One of our primary aims will be to determine how such films stand both in relation to other films (including so-called biopics) and in relation to other representations of musicians in images and words. Relatedly, we will be concerned with the technical and narrative strategies of directors, editors and script writers: e.g., the relative merits of location recording vis-à-vis studio environments; the use of confessional and “talking head” interviews; approaches for including performance footage; editing strategies; choice of film stock; and the like. In the end, our brief will be to understand how such filmic portraits reinforce and complicate notions of authorship/creativity, labor, economy, identity and value.