Reviews for Home Movies and Other Necessary Fictions

The average rating for Home Movies and Other Necessary Fictions based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2007-12-14 00:00:00 Stephanie Lentz I'd never heard of the feminist scholar and filmmaker Michelle Citron, but read this book on a recommendation, and am so glad I did. It's a collection of several longish prose pieces that discuss the intersections of Citron's life and art, and of the screenplays for two of her films, Daughter Rite and What We Take For Granted.... (I found the former to be the least interesting of the two, but it was useful as a reference, since it was her first film and she discusses it a good bit throughout the book. I found What We Take For Granted..., a faux-documentary focusing on women in traditionally male occupations, very compelling, perhaps because of my own mother's job as an electrician.) Much of this book centers on film as a medium, but you don't need to be a film geek to understand it--I know next to nothing about film studies, and was not lost at any point. The author is an incest survivor, and there are a couple of parts centering on this that are very hard to read, but all in all the book reads fluidly and (especially for nonfiction) surprisingly quickly. I'd highly recommend it to all writers, regardless of genre or medium, and to anyone interested in the way personal history affects art and life.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-08-13 00:00:00 S Christopher Lirely This book was included in the reading materials at the last minute for our Historical and Critical Research Methods in Film class during my penultimate semester in film school and I enjoyed reading it even it was an added title and we didn't have to put up a report nor write a paper on it. I guess the most interesting thing about this book is that most of us can relate to home movies because at one point or another, either we have filmed one or have been in one, although the significance of such tapes might not be as monetarily memorable as our classic movies bought from the video store. Citron managed to put forward how these videos create a cognitive mapping of our lives, even if these are only snippets. Although, one of the more disturbing sections for me was one of the subjects reliving a traumatic, domestic event in their family. While we usually see home movies as upbeat and happy, where family reunions, birthdays and other special events are taped, the "necessary fictions" take place in the meanings ascribed to them, and what is unseen by the camera.