{"id":49832,"date":"2014-05-07T19:11:38","date_gmt":"2014-05-07T23:11:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=49832"},"modified":"2015-07-31T13:44:46","modified_gmt":"2015-07-31T17:44:46","slug":"new-book-explores-awkward-moments-in-film-and-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/new-book-explores-awkward-moments-in-film-and-media\/","title":{"rendered":"New book explores awkward moments in film and media"},"content":{"rendered":"

Television shows like The<\/em> Office<\/em>, Curb Your Enthusiasm<\/em>, and 30 Rock <\/em>have built large followings around their use of awkward and cringeworthy comedy. But according to Jason Middleton, assistant professor of English and director of the film and media studies program at the URochester, the use of staged \u201cawkwardness\u201d in documentaries, TV, and in videos on YouTube extends far beyond the domain of contemporary popular culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people think of comic elements in documentary film they typically think of Michael Moore, but this approach was used in some of the earliest documentary films like Nanook of the North<\/em>,\u201d explains Middleton, who points to staged scenes and comic interactions between the actor and filmmaker in the 1922 silent documentary. \u201cThe things for which Moore was faulted\u2014from his use of comedy to his failure to uphold objectivity\u2014are consistent with the history of documentary films.\u201d<\/p>\n

This deliberate use of \u201cawkward humor\u201d is the subject of Middleton\u2019s new book, Documentary\u2019s Awkward Turn: Cringe Comedy and Media Spectatorship<\/em>. Published by Routledge as part of its Research in Cultural and Media Studies series, the book explores awkward moments in film to help historicize cultural irony and track how it arises in documentary films and reality-based media.<\/p>\n

Described by Middleton as \u201cdisrupted encounters on film,\u201d awkward moments emerge in strategies by filmmakers, like Moore<\/a>, who use irony to convey serious political issues; in portrait films like Grey Gardens<\/em><\/a>, which explore the lives of eccentrics or \u201coutsiders\u201d; and in film hoaxes, like Sacha Baron Cohen\u2019s Borat<\/em><\/a>, which raise questions about authority and authenticity.<\/p>\n