Abstract:

Direct cinema’s attempt to withhold itself from the world is ethically problematic. The helplessness of documentary subjects and audiences is underscored by this observational style. In Gimme Shelter – a concert film by Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin about the Rolling Stones and the fatal violence at the Altamont Speedway Free Festival – social actors are forced to submit to a representational frame they cannot ‘see’, let alone access. Moreover, the audience’s own distance from the pro-filmic events is doubly assured: the film-maker’s policy of non-interference precludes and/or renders moot a viewer’s impossible desire to intercede on the subjects’ behalf

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