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June 1992

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Subject:
From:
Tom Benson 814-865-4201 <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 29 Jun 1992 10:04:00 EDT
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Sally Waters asks about "legal movies" for the video
collection at her law library.
 
Several possible categories beyond those she summarizes
come to mind (though you may actually already have these,
Sally):
 
For example, documentaries -- several of Frederick Wiseman's
[he's a lawyer by training] documentaries are directly about
law and its administration: TITICUT FOLLIES, JUVENILE COURT,
WELFARE . . . and are available now on VHS (there's a filmography
and address in Benson & Anderson REALITY FICTIONS (1989) &
Anderson & Benson DOCUMENTARY DILEMMAS (1991).)
Wiseman's own story of his career describes how he first
became interested in making TITICUT FOLLIES, about the
Bridgewater Correctional Institution when he took his law
students there to show them what the legal system did to people.
That logic suggests a law-video library that goes beyond films
about lawyers.
 
You might also want to consider not courtroom lawyers but
law-making and law-enforcing . . . as in films about
Congress (from MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON . . .); films
about the blacklist (THE FRONT; GUILTY BY SUSPICION).
 
And there is the theme of the failure or absence of
law -- and various alternatives -- in such films as
SILKWOOD, Z, ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN . . .
 
It suddenly gets to be a very big list, doesn't it?
How about posting a listing of those films you do have
to SCREEN-L for general edification?
 
Tom Benson
Penn State
t3b@psuvm

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