The Political Economy of Documentary Archives

This chapter explores how stock footage logistically becomes available for a documentary. It discusses the political economic relationship between copyright law, B-roll footage obtainment, and film stock vendors. This chapter argues that interrogating the precursory conditions of how film stock becomes available to filmmakers clarifies the technical and regulatory backdrop for documentary evidence. It additionally helps to connect documentary studies to discourses in recognition research, while elucidating the logic of how digital archives deliberate about how to approach film, television, and radio curation strategy. Finally, it suggests two ways to expand the diversity of stock footage: the creation of a public website at the government level that describes a state's holdings over specific recordings or film footage is, and perhaps more importantly, earmarking additional grant funds to digitize and make available content.