Annotated Bibliography

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(under construction)

  • Arthur, Paul. "The Moving Picture Cure: Self-Therapy Documentaries."

Psychoanalytic Review 94 (2007): 865-85. This article discusses and gives many examples of "therapy documentaries," which aim to "change the person behind the camera, with film viewers as presumably sympathetic witnesses."

  • Berliner, Alan. "Alan Berliner; filmmaker." Film Quarterly 52 (1998): 55-56.

JSTOR. 17 Nov. 2008 <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1213369>. Alan Berliner discusses his father's role (or lack thereof) in the development of his film career.

  • Berliner, Alan. "The Reluctant Witness." Interview with Mitch Albert. The Independent Film & Video Monthly May 1997. This interview with Alan Berliner about his film, Nobody's Business, includes a lot of revealing information about the film's creation and Berliner's relationship with his father.
  • Delerium. Dr. Mindy Faber. VHS. 1993. Faber's film about her mother and mental illness is a typical self-therapy documentary.
  • Ellmeno P., comp. "ALANBERLINER.COM." 2001. 15 Nov. 2008 <http://alanberliner.com>. Alan Berliner's website is very informative and contains a filmography, articles by and about Berliner, clips from Berliner's films, photos, information about Berliner's installations, purchasing information, family history, and more.
  • Howarth, William L. "Some Principles of Autobiography." New Literary History 5

(1974): 363-81. This article offers a lengthy discussion of the autobiography, although the focus is on literature, not film.

  • Levasseur, Audrey. "Film and Video Self-Biographies." Biography 23 (2000):

176-92. This article discusses the biographical genre and its subgenres, especially focusing on the self-biography. Examples of self-biographies are given, including Alan Berliner's Nobody's Business, which will be screened in the Sources Project Lecture.

  • Muguiero, Carlos. The Man Without the Movie Camera: The Cinema of Alan Berliner. Ed. Efren Cuevas. Ediciones Internacionales Universitarias.

This interview with Alan Berliner has a lot of interesting information about his filmmaking process and inspirations.

  • Nobody's Business. Dir. Alan Berliner. VHS. 1996. This is probably Alan Berliner's best known film, a documentary about his father, which also features Alan Berliner, and is semi-autobiographical.
  • Sherman's March. Dir. Ross McElwee. Film. 1986. In this autobiographical film, Ross McElwee starts out attempting to make a documentary about General Sherman's march during the Civil War, but it transforms into a film about McElwee's love interests. A good example of a self-therapy documentary.
  • The Sweetest Sound. Dir. Alan Berliner. DVD. 2001. This film is about the significance of people's names, focusing especially on the director's name.
  • Wide Awake. Dir. Alan Berliner. DVD. 2006. This autobiographical film chronicles Berliner's experience with insomnia.
  • Fulbeck, K. (Writer/Director). (2003). Lilo & Me [Video Art/Animation].

In this autobiographical family portrait, Kip Fulbeck recounts his childhood by referring back to his love for Disney movies. Growing up as a biracial child, his mother being Chinese and father white European American, Fulbeck loved Disney movies because all the ethnically ambiguous characters looked like him. This short animation piece is part autobiography, part family portrait. It is touching and funny, yet it gives the viewer a critical examination of the disregard for race in the mainstream media. Kip Fulbeck is an award winning artist, filmmaker and slam poet. He is currently a professor of Art at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Lilo & Me is a vital work for this research supplementing the investigation of contemporary personal cinema, or autoethnography.

  • Gluck, P. (Writer/Producer). (2003). Divan [Documentary]. United Sates. Palinka Pictures.

In this endearing documentary, filmmaker Pearl Gluck travels from Brooklyn to Hungary in hopes of reclaiming a family couch that important rabbis slept on. Instead, her journey turns into a self-reflexive tale in which Gluck tries to reconcile her past orthodox identity and her relationship with her father. Thus, the Divan or the couch serves as merely a backdrop or a symbol in the film concluding that a great couch is a great couch; it doesn’t have to be authentic. Essentially this notion is applied to Gluck, she is no longer authentically orthodox, but she still follows her own version of the religion, similar to the faux couch she ended up buying. Pearl Gluck was the first Yiddish Fulbright Scholar. Initially she went to Hungary to collect Oral History for her Thesis in European studies, but decided to expand the project to what is now known as Divan. Her documentary serves as the exemplary piece and template for modern auto-ethnographic artists. Her film is not just stylistically pleasant, but it also shows the viewer that the identities we chose relate to our histories, our communities and our families.

  • Russell, C (1999). Experimental Ethnography: The work of Film in the age of Video. Durham, N, C: Duke University Press.

In this massive book, Catherine Russell uses Walter Benjamin’s definition of aura to argue about the nature of authenticity and cultural representation. She argues that experimental ethnography refers to a rethinking of both aesthetics and cultural representation. Russell explores the interplay between experimental film and ethnographic film. Thus, she traces the history of modern filmmaking showing the transition to the postmodern, concluding that ethnography today has become an expansive term in which culture is represented from many different perspectives. What is was specifically striking about this book, was Russell’s chapters on Autoethnography—or diary filmmaking. The use of autobiographical material is extremely effective in “politicizing the personal” and in distinguishing from the passive scientism of conventional ethnographic forms. Russell is a Professor of Film Studies at Concordia University in Montreal. Her book is a vital part of this research, grounding a lot of the historical and theoretical aspects of Experimental Ethnographic films.






[edit] Comedy Applied (Cross Genre Study) Bibliography

Allen, Steve, and Jane Wollman. How to Be Funny. McGraw Hill, NY: Prometheus Books, 1987.
The creator of the “Tonight Show” takes us through different formula’s of jokes and explain “funniness”.

Perret, Gene. Comedy Writing Workbook. New York, NY: Sterling Co., 1990.
This book has many examples of what is funny and how to write a funny joke. It has work assignments and keeps you sharp.

Voytilla, Stuart, and Scott Petri. Writing the Comedy Film. Studio City, CA: Michael Wiese Production, 2003.
This book explains how to write a comedy film. Explaining comedic structure, characters, plots, and joke types. It takes us through the different subgenres of comedy and types of comedy movies.

[edit] Experimental/Animation Bibliography


  • Blogger: User Profile: Jeff Chiba Stearns. E Blogger. 18 Nov. 2008 <http://www.blogger.com/profile/14346753302214307698>. Also lacking information, this blog site was a golden find for it the very own blog of Jeff Chiba Stearns. His work is heavily influenced by his mulit cultureal and minority memories. He "draws" from his background; growing up half Japanese and identity searching, in a small,predominately white Canadian town.


  • Concept of Exclusivity, comp. "Professor Fatimah Tobing Rony Makes a Film and Explores Family in Sumatra." Between the Lines: 1+. An article commenting on the progress and motivations behind Rony's first film, Gracie Makes a Movie. Inspired by her book, The Third Eye: Race, Cinema and Ethnographic Spectacle, she points out and critiques stereotypes of native cultures and makes advancements towards breaking out of stereotypes.


  • "Fatimah Tobing Rony." Fatimah Tobing Rony. Jan. 2008. The Media Arts Fellowships. 18 Nov. 2008 <http://mediaartists.org/content.php?sec=artist&sub=detail&artist_id=715>. Climbing the internet-working social ladder, Fatimah Tobing Rony has her own page within the Media Arts Fellowship. Media Arts Fellowship is a creative outlet for independent media makers to receive funding, recognition and support.



  • "Jeff Chiba Stearns." Accesasie.com. 18 Nov. 2008 <http://www.accesasie.com/en/docs/program_2007/bio_jeff_chiba_stearns.htm>. Jeff Chiba Stearns is a relatively newer artist, and this little breakdown of a website gave some pretty matter-of-fact information regarding a handful of Stearn's achievements. Any information on this artist is helpful, yet the webiste is shotty and lacks bibliographic information I would like to know. The site also held a wealth of pictures featuring his work and the artist, himself.



  • Maggie87, ed. "On Cannibalism." Anthropology & The Human Condition. 12 Nov. 2008. National University of Singapore. 19 Nov. 2008 <http://sc2218.wetpaint.com/page/"on+cannibalism"?t=anon>. Although a brief and simplistic wiki site for and by the students of the University of Singapore, Maggie87 reiterates relevant points from On Cannibalism, referring to Western civilization's exoticism and "Concept of Exclusivity" (the line between "Us and Them").


  • Meditatingbunnystudio. 19 Nov. 2008. Blogspot. 20 Nov. 2008 <http://www.meditatingbunny.blogspot.com/>. This is Jeff Stearn's blogspot, tracking his progress as an animator, regarding his work and inspiration, trips/conventions, photos and screening times/dates. His last post (Nov. 19, 2008) has a link to his most recent interview, where he answers questions about his newest autobiographical piece, Yellow Sticky Notes.


  • O., Simon. "TickleBooth." Jeff Chiba Stearns- Yellow Sticky Notes. 20 July 2008. 19 Nov. 2008 <http://ticklebooth.com/2008/07/jeff-chiba-stearns-yellow-sticky-notes/>. SimonO gives a beautifully articulate and condensed description of Stearn's newest 2007 animation, Yellow Sticky Notes. I thought it was a good example of writing less to say more, which is something I'd like to emulate.


  • On Cannibalism. Dir. Fatimah Tobing Rony. VHS. 1993. Fatimah Tobing Romy's film is a mix between autobiographical and ethnographic reflection, as she focuses on Western culture's racist fascinations and representation of native cultures. An excellent film by an Indonesian-American female filmmaker, offering her commentary regarding respect from the white bread entertainment community we should all learn to question and defy.



  • Stoller, Paul. "The Third Eye." Film Quarterly, Vol. 52, No. 1 (Autumn, 1998) 1998: 92-93. Film Quarterly's Paul Stoller reviewed Fatimah Tobling Rony's book, The Third Eye: Race, Cinema, and Ethnographic Spectacle. Although this particular article doesn't have much to do with experimental autobiography, the ethnographic elements of Rony's work are apparent in her 1994 autobiographical film On Cannibalism. The ethnographic elements included give her piece a not only a strong personal perspective but a deep historic relevance, touching on issues of colonialism and romanticizing cultures. By now I can see a definite pattern of inspiration behind her series of works.


  • "Women Make Movies." Fatimah Tobing Rony. Women Make Movies. 20 Nov. 2008 <http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/makers/fm314.shtml>. Women Make Movies is a non-profit arts organization by women, for women, featuring Fatimah Tobing Rony's work and achievements.
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