Too Bold for the Box Office: The Mockumentary from Big Screen to Small ed. by Cynthia J. Miller (review)

In 1957, the British Broadcasting Corporation aired "The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest," which depicted the success that farmers in Switzerland were having that year in cultivating spaghetti. Designed as an April Fools' Day joke, this fake documentary was greeted with curiosity by some viewers who were ignorant about how spaghetti was actually made and with anger by those who resented the elaborate hoax. Although "The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest" was not the first "mockumentary," the uproar the film caused among BBC viewers highlighted the emotional power, both positive and negative, that this burgeoning genre possessed. In a new collection of essays, Too Bold for the Box Office: The Mockumentary from Big Screen to Small, film scholars, historians, and filmmakers spotlight the history and scope of the mockumentary, examining the ways in which films in this genre subvert the traditional documentary form, critique our social and cultural traditions, and challenge our accepted histories. Together, these essays, which present an impressive range of international perspectives, help to demarcate the boundaries of the mockumentary, distinguishing the form from simple parody, and to detail the widespread use of its style in movies and television. A quick glance at the extended filmography at the end of the book, which lists both well-known and obscure television shows and films in the genre, attests to the popularity, particularly in the United States and Europe, of the mockumentary today.

Film scholars will be impressed by the breadth of perspectives in this collection, which offer new ways of thinking about the scope of the mockumentary genre. Essays by Eve Allegra Raimon, Cynthia Miller and A. Bowdoin Van Riper, and Robert Weiner look at mockumentaries that present stories of fictional individuals such as Fae Richards, a forgotten black character actor from the 1930s, fictional organizations such as the "Negro American Space Society of Astronauts," and fictional events such as the failed Hollandia expedition to Antarctica. Such "lost histories" ask us to reconsider the nature of historical truth and to look for those individuals or groups absent from our canonical accounts of the past. Other essays by Linda Kornasky, Heather Merle Benbow, and Scott Wilson examine mockumentaries that challenge and mock our cultural traditions, including one that parodies Western fascination with Eastern religions, one that promotes polka music as an alternative to the superficial nature of rock-and-roll, and one that challenges the mythology embedded within the national identity of New Zealanders. Other essays by Spencer Schaffner, Craig Hight, and Gary Rhodes explore the various forms in which mockumentaries appear, including short-form television series, reality-blurring "commando" films, Internet videos, and other new media forms.

In so doing, these essays convincingly promote the mockumentary as an important form of cultural critique that uses parody, mimicry, and pastiche to challenge our basic understandings of our country, our faith, our collective history, and our own sense of identity. Moreover, the mockumentary style, as these essays reveal, uses comic exaggeration to debunk some of our cherished conventions, making us squirm in our seats as we watch. This accounts in part for the often negative reactions on the part of viewers and the controversies that have emerged with the release of many mockumentaries. Unfortunately, however, none of the authors adequately explain why the mockumentary style has become so widespread in popular films and television shows in recent years, and more scholarship is needed to provide a convincing account about the historical emergence of the genre. Kevin Brownlow, in his essay on the making of his mockumentary, It Happened Here, about the fictional rise of fascism in Great Britain, as well as John Tibbetts, in his analysis of the film itself, argue that the mockumentary arises in moments when a society has trouble admitting difficult truths about itself. But in order to understand why this genre has taken hold, a more theoretical discussion that links the mockumentary to larger cultural and societal shifts is essential. Still, the...