Crafting Truth: Documentary Form and Meaning

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments Writing acknowledgements is a most pleasurable, yet difficult, task. The thanks we owe to the people who assisted, encouraged, and endured us during the five years we were working on this project are enormous. It is clear that this book was built on the wisdom and generosity of many people, especially Karen Backstein, Lemi Baruh, Melis Behlil, Julie Par Cadenhead, Dino Capone, Yunsun Chae, Michael Chanan, Elizabeth Corbett, Alfredo Dias D’Almeida, Martin Duncan, Jayne Fargnoli, Joseph Goldberg, Frances Grodzinsky, Ahmet Gürata, Roger Hallas, Roald Hoffmann, Jeffrey Howlett, John L. Jackson Jr., Lynne Jackson, Aslı Kotaman , Alisa Lebow, Michael Nitsche, Augusta Palmer, Robert Sklar, Qi Wang, and Mark Wyers. We are especially grateful to Hardy Griffin, whose keen interest in our project and insightful reading of the manuscript are unsurpassed, Doğa Aytuna (Mac expert extraordinaire), who facilitated the photos, and Carl Lewis, who came to our rescue with his attentive ear for music. And we must also thank a slew of film and video makers who loaned us works and answered questions, among them Kamal Aljafari, Magnus Bärtås, Alan Berliner ,JeanCarlomusto,KaveryDutta,ConnieField,RichardFung,LouisMassiah, Abraham Ravett, Larissa Sansour, and Jalal Toufic, and a whole mess of librarians who helped us to find material we were looking for, especially Didem Önal and Sachi Spohn. Thanks as well to Videofilmes, Zeitgeist Films, Documentary x acknowledgments Educational Resources, and Magnolia Pictures for granting us access to some of their titles. At Rutgers University Press, we are obliged to Leslie Mitchner and her staff for a sensitive handling of both our proposal and our manuscript. A warm thanks to those who have gone before us, who have taught us, and who have inspired our interest in documentary, especially Bill Nichols, Michael Renov, Brian Winston, Paul Arthur, and Erik Barnouw. We are also grateful for funding support from Kadir Has University. And we thank the Journal of Popular Culture for permission to reprint sections of “Working Class Hero: Michael Moore’s Authorial Voice and Persona” (43.2, Spring 2010). As always, Louise Spence must thank David Curtis for years of moral support and for helping her find her way as a writer. Vinicius Navarro would like to thank La Frances Hui for her patience and support at various stages of this project. And most of all, we are indebted to our students. Their enthusiasms and resistances have forced us to shape and reshape many of our theories and much of our language. Without them, these words would never have been written. crafting truth ...