Iranian documentary filmmakers negotiate their relationship with power centers every step of the way in order to open creative spaces and make films. This dissertation covers their professional activities and their films, with particular attention to 1997 to 2014, which has been a period of tremendous expansion. Despite the many restrictions on freedom of expression in Iran, especially between 2009 and 2013, after the uprising against dubious election practices, documentary filmmakers continued to organize, remained active, and produced films and distributed them. In this dissertation I explore how they engaged with different centers of power in order to create films that are relevant to their society. To focus this topic, my research explores media institutions, their filmmaking practices, and the strategies they use to produce and distribute their films. This research is important because it explores the inherent contradictions in the existence of a vibrant documentary film community in a country that is envisioned as uniformly closed and oppressive in the West. The research is also personally motivated, because I have close connections to the Iranian documentary film world, where I previously made films and produced television programs. I conduct the study with a multi-faceted approach, utilizing participant observation in the field in a four-month period, in-depth interviews with key players, personal reflections, and textual analysis of the films. I focus on about twenty filmmakers and their films, chosen from a pool of more than 500 documentary filmmakers, giving a cross section of this community based on their age, sex, and their professional history and success within Iran and internationally. / Media & Communication

Magistro darbo objektas – šiuolaikinis Lietuvos dokumentinis kinas. Darbo tikslas – darbo objektą išanalizuoti komunikaciniu bei kultūriniu aspektais. Pagrindiniai darbo uždaviniai – nustatyti dokumentinio filmo definiciją, ištirti dokumentinį kiną herojaus vaizdo vaidmenimis, įvardinti lietuviškų dokumentinių filmų struktūrų bei novatoriškumo tendencijas. Naudojantis kino bei fotografijos teksto kokybinės analizės metodu bei pasirinktomis komunikacijos ir kultūrų teorijomis, prieita prie išvados, kad senoji dokumentikos kaip tikrovės atspindžio definicija nebeatitinka reiškinio empirikos, todėl teikiamas naujas apibrėžimo variantas; taip pat, – kad tam tikri protagonistų vaidmenys yra būdingi tik tam tikriems dokumentikos žanrams; ir kad mūsų dokumentikos specifiką sąlygoja nacionalinis kūrėjų charakteris bei kultūrinis pagrindas. Atlikus tyrimą nustatyti trys pagrindiniai komponentai: žanrinis lietuvių dokumentinio kino laukas, jo struktūrinės sąrangos bei jame veikiančių herojų tipai. Naratyvai suskirstyti į dvi – uždarojo ir atvirojo pobūdžio struktūras. Toks struktūravimas patvirtino prielaidą, jog pasirinktas filmo naratyvas lemia vaizduojamųjų vaidmenis, jų santykį su tikrove, verbaliką. Išsiaiškinta, jog lietuvių dokumentikos kontekste tarp kitų figūruoja du žanrai: publicistika bei poetika; pirmasis jų suvokiamas sklandžiai, nes primena televizinį produktą, antrojo percepcija yra kur kas sudėtingesnė dėl nekonvencionalaus turinio, todėl jam priimti būtina speciali... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The paper deals with the analysis of contemporary Lithuanian documentary film in the field of communication and culture theories, where “contemporary” film is considered to be made more or less in the last ten years. It analyses the object in the terms of innovation of definition, iconography of the protagonist and structures of narratives. The definition of documentary film is examined on the one hand from the journalistic point of view, characterizing it as a fact-based film that depicts actual events and persons; on the other hand, in the film theory sight it is considered to be a manipulative narration of the story, taken out of reality. A central question is if characteristics of factuality is remaining the main one talking about the documentary film, as the examples of Lithuanian poetic documentaries are far-off exposing of reality. That is why this study suggests a new definition of the object, putting a director’s role in the narrative above actual reflection of factuality: a documentary is called here a director’s viewpoint (in the case of Lithuanian poetic genre – a meditation) on the phenomena of the objective reality. Qualitative film text analysis and the communicational approaches of John Fiske, Marshall McLuhan and Jean Baudrillard’s ideas provide the theoretical framework for the study. Documentary films are analyzed as the object of science of communication. It is focused on reading the communicational codes and conventions in different genres of documentary... [to full text]

O filme documentário foi utilizado, desde seus primórdios, para representar a alteridade, as diferenças de modos de vida, cultura e pensamento. Documentaristas produziram com base em modos de trabalho variados e, dentre eles, sempre houve discussões sobre a (im)possibilidade da representação da alteridade em filmes. Nesta pesquisa, utilizamos o conceito da \"voz do documentário\", de Bill Nichols, para pensar sobre modos de representação da voz de Outros dentro da voz do documentário. Alargamos seu entendimento para analisar tanto modos de produção quanto de recepção em que a representação pelo documentário possa ser concebida e praticada como forma de ação pela melhoria da vida de Outros sujeitos filmados. A leitura do conceito de \"voz\" se deu pelas contribuições do campo da linguagem, da cultura e do cinema enquanto discurso, uma leitura baseada nos legados do pensamento crítico trazidos pelo pós-colonialismo, pós-estruturalismo, estudos culturais, feminismo e pela genealogia proposta por Michel Foucault, como abordagem metodológica. Por ser um trabalho genealógico, esta pesquisa buscou evidenciar discursos dominantes e seus Outros: discursos subalternos sobre o Outro, discursos do Outro como alteridade, discursos que são Outro dos dominantes. Nosso foco na questão da dominância priorizou os discursos produzidos por documentaristas e pensadores do documentário brasileiros, embora não tenha se limitado a eles. Os resultados indicam que há um discurso dominante no Brasil sobre a voz do Outro na voz do documentário, que é o da impossibilidade da representação dessas vozes no que elas trazem de intencionalidades para o mundo vivido. Por outro lado, encontramos pelos discursos dos filmes documentários a subalternidade na prática do documentário como intervenção direta no mundo, realizando a ressonância da voz de Outros. Indicamos que tem ocorrido uma reversão nesse sentido, pela qual a ética do documentário pode ser repensada por meio de relações entre cineastas, Outros sujeitos filmados e públicos, em que os efeitos dos filmes documentários no mundo são valorizados de maneira diferente do que na ética dominante presente, em quem o Outro é, comumente, apenas personagem de filmes. A pesquisa levanta questões teóricas e práticas para pensar filmes documentários que visem representar a voz do Outro na voz do documentário com vistas a intervir para a melhoria das condições de vida de Outros sujeitos filmados e suas comunidades. / From its beginnings the documentary film was used to represent alterity, the differences in ways of life, culture and thought. Documentary filmmakers developed multiple modes of work and within these there have always been discussions about the (im)possibility of the representation of alterity in films. In this research, we use Bill Nichols\' concept of the \"voice of the documentary\" to reflect on ways of representing the voice of Others within the voice of the documentary. We extend such concept to analyze both the modes of production and reception by which representation in the documentary can be understood and practiced as a form of action for the improvement the lives of Other filmed subjects. Our understanding of the concept of \"voice\" comes from the contributions of the field study of language, culture and cinema as discourse, a perspective based on the legacies of critical thinking brought about by postcolonialism, poststructuralism, cultural studies, feminism and genealogy in consonance with what is proposed by Michel Foucault, as a methodological approach. Intended as a genealogical work, this research sought to highlight dominant discourses and their Other subaltern discourses considering both the Other as otherness and discourses that are Another of the dominant. Our focus on the dominance issue prioritizes the discourses produced by Brazilian documentary filmmakers and theorists of documentary, though not limited to them. The results indicate that there is a dominant discourse in Brazil about the voice of the Other in the voice of the documentary that is of the impossibility of the representation of these voices as they bring intentionalities toward the lived world. On the other hand, we found in the discourses on documentary film the subalternity of the practice of the documentary as a direct intervention in the world, including the resonance of the voice of Others. We point out that a reversion must be taking place in this direction, as the documentary ethics is reviewed in the relations among filmmakers, other filmed subjects, and public, by which the effects of documentary films in the world will be differently valued than they are today in the present dominant ethic where the Other is just a movie character. The research raises theoretical and practical questions about documentary films aiming to represent the voice of Others in the voice of documentary with a will to intervene and improve the living conditions of Other filmed subjects and their communities.

Este trabalho analisa os usos do material de arquivo, as construções discursivas e a visão historiográfica deles decorrentes em dois filmes dedicados a personagens da música popular brasileira, em particular do samba: o curta-metragem A voz e o vazio: A vez de Vassourinha (1998), de Carlos Adriano, e o longa-metragem Cartola, música para os olhos (2006), de Lírio Ferreira e Hilton Lacerda. Os dois filmes estão construídos a partir de uma perspectiva da estética found footage, com o material de arquivo operando como base indicial para novos arranjos de sentido na interpretação da história. A análise busca identificar os nexos criados pelas duas obras e a variada gama de diálogos culturais que podem ser inferidos de sua leitura. Em destaque, o lugar que a música popular ocupa na cultura urbana brasileira. Ao fazê-lo, o trabalho identifica matrizes estéticas comuns, como o cinema de invenção de Julio Bressane, mas que resultam em diferentes abordagens historiográficas: uma, signatária de uma visão pós-moderna; a outra, mais próxima a uma atualização da crônica histórica. / This dissertation analyses the use of archive material, the discursive constructions and the resulting historiographic vision in two films dedicated to personalities from Brazilian Popular Music, particularly from samba: the short film The voice and the void: Vassourinhas turn (1998), by Carlos Adriano, and the feature film Cartola, music for the eyes (2006), by Lírio Ferreira and Hilton Lacerda. Both films were assembled from the perspective of found footage aesthetic, in which the archive material indicates new arrangements of meaning for the interpretation of the story.The analysis aims to identify the nexuses created by the two works and the varied range of cultural dialogues that may be inferred from their interpretation. Special attention is given to the place of popular music in Brazilian urban culture. As a result, common aesthetic matrixes are identified, such as Julio Bressanes cinema of invention, resulting, however, in different historiographic approaches: one, signatory of a post-modern vision; the other, more similar to an update of historic chronicles.

A presente dissertação se assume como um trabalho introdutório sobre as peculiaridades de uma prática de Teatro Documentário, demonstrando como o seu caráter estético traz em si mesmo os elementos de caráter educacional. Para isso, levantamos, teoricamente, conceitos e dados históricos, a fim de aprimorarmos nossa visão acerca do que chamamos Teatro Documentário, estabelecendo uma ponte direta com a conceituação de Documentário em Cinema, presente, em especial, nos escritos do teórico norte-americano Bill Nichols. Em seguida, exemplificamos nossas idéias com uma experiência, dentro de uma instituição de ensino, centrada em práticas embebidas por preceitos constantes no sistema de Jogos Teatrais. A encenação resultante abordou a busca por um menino romeno que, segundo algumas indicações, tocava sanfona na Praça do Patriarca, no centro da cidade de São Paulo. O tema foi pretexto para a construção palmilhada de um longo caminho urbano pelo qual se [des]escreveram muitas histórias de dor, de decepções, de desilusões e desencantos, na contramão de histórias de alegrias, de risadas, de sobrevivência, de encontro e arte. Duas estátuas-vivas, dois homens-placa, um poeta, uma moradora de rua, uma transeunte e uma gari despontaram como estrelas, numa constelação despercebida por muitos, todos os dias, nas ruas, nas praças, sob os viadutos... Uma trajetória que, enfim, revelou o próprio processo. As fontes documentais exploradas foram, em grande parte, depoimentos registrados em vídeo, evidenciando o trabalho com a imagem captada. / This dissertation presents itself as an introductory work on the peculiarities of Documentary Theater, focusing its discussion in how the approachs aesthetic aspect brings in itself the education elements. For that, theoretical concepts and historical data were collected in order to characterize our vision of Documentary Theater, establishing a link with the concepts of the documentary in Cinema, especially in the writings of the North-American scholar Bill Nicols. Secondly, we exemplify that with an experience at an educational institute, focused in practices based on the system of Theater Games. The resulting play dealt with the search of a Romanian boy that, according to some indications, played accordion at Praça Patriarca, in the downtown area of São Paulo. The theme was a pretext for the constructions of a long urban path in which many stories of pain, deception and disillusion in opposition to many stories of joy, laughter, survival, encounters and art were written. Two living statues, two homem-placas, a poet, a homeless woman, a walker and a garbage woman emerged as stars in an unnoticed constellation, everyday on the streets, squares and under the bridges. A path that revealed the process itself. The documental materials that were explored were in great part video testimonies, making evident the work with the captured image.

Este é um estudo sobre os escritos do cineasta Dziga Viértov e sobre a publicação desses documentos na União Soviética e, posteriormente, na Rússia. Na primeira parte deste trabalho, é analisado o primeiro momento de resgate da obra de Viértov na então URSS pouco após o falecimento do cineasta, em 1954. Relacionando esse processo ao contexto mais amplo do chamado Degelo e analisando o período que vai de 1957 a 1967, vemos como o redescobrimento dos filmes de Viértov correu em paralelo com o redescobrimento de sua obra escrita, através da publicação de seus artigos, diários e roteiros inéditos inicialmente em revistas e jornais, depois na primeira coletânea desses escritos a ser publicada na URSS, Statí. Dnevnikí. Zámisli (Artigos. Diários. Projetos), organizada por Serguei Drobachenko. Lançada em 1966 e fonte comum de todas as principais traduções de textos de Viértov hoje disponíveis em diversos idiomas, esta coletânea é aqui analisada criticamente: partindo de comentários de pesquisadores como Liév Rochál, Aleksandr Deriábin, John MacKay e Dária Krujkôva a respeito de imprecisões na reprodução dos textos no volume, sobretudo em relação a cortes realizados por motivos políticos, foi realizado para este trabalho um cotejo de todos os documentos incluídos em Statí. Dnevnikí. Zámisli com as versões desses mesmos materiais na recente edição Iz Nasliêdia da obra escrita de Viértov, publicada na Rússia em dois volumes (2004, 2008). A íntegra desse cotejo é apresentada como a Parte IV deste trabalho; na Parte I, a partir de exemplos concretos de artigos que foram modificados, são propostas e analisadas as características gerais dos cortes e reescrituras deliberadas realizadas pelo editor do volume, sendo ressaltados os limites - estéticos e políticos - deste primeiro momento de recuperação da obra do cineasta na então URSS. Na Parte II, partimos de diversos materiais incluídos na recente edição Iz Nasliêdia (em grande parte, até então inéditos) e também de documentos preservados no fundo de Viértov no RGALI, em Moscou, e no Österreichiche Filmmusem, em Viena, para estudar a \"última fase\" da carreira de Viértov, de 1938 a 1954, anos durante os quais o cineasta realiza poucos filmes, mas desenvolve mais de trinta projetos que acabaram não sendo realizados. Destacamos suas tentativas de realizar filmes infanto-juvenis, suas experiências durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial, seus projetos de retratos de pessoas comuns, seus textos autoreflexivos da década de 1940 e os últimos artigos que escreve a partir de sua experiência no cinejornal Nôvosti Dniá, onde trabalhou de 1944 até sua morte em 1954. Na Parte III desta dissertação, são apresentadas traduções feitas a partir dos originais em russo (publicados em Iz Nasliêdia e preservados no RGALI e no Österreichiche Filmmusem) de catorze textos do cineasta comentados ao longo das partes I e II. / This is a work about the writings of Soviet filmmaker Dziga Vertov and their publication in Soviet Union and, more recently, in Russia. In its first part, we analyze the first wave of Vertov\'s posthumous recognition in the USSR after his death in 1954. Relating this process to the broader context of the so-called period of the Thaw and focusing on the time frame of 1957 to 1967, we discuss how the rediscovery of Vertov\'s films was accompanied by a rediscovery of his writings, through the publication of many previously unpublished articles, diaries and scripts initially in various film journals and newspapers and, in 1966, in the first collected edition of these materials to be published in the Soviet Union: Stat\'i. Dnevniki. Zamysly, organized by Sergei Drobashenko. As the main source for all of the most important translations of Vertov\'s writings to languages such as German, French and English, this edition is critically analyzed here: departing from commentaries by researchers such as Lev Roshal\', Aleksandr Deryabin, John MacKay and Daria Kruzhkova about the many imprecisions existent in the reproduction of Vertov\'s texts in this 1966 edition - such as the omission of certain paragraphs and sentences due to their political content -, a thorough comparative analysis was made for this work between all the texts included in Stat\'i. Dnevniki. Zamysly and the reproduction of these same materials in the recent Russian two-volume edition of Vertov\'s writings, Iz Nasledya (2004, 2008). The full text of this comparison is presented as Part IV of this work; in Part I, the general characteristics of these cuts and deliberate rewritings of certain passages within the texts, made by the volume\'s editor, are discussed on the basis of some concrete examples of documents that were considerably altered. By means of this analysis, we also discuss the aesthetical and political limits of this first wave of posthumous interest in Vertov in the USSR. In Part II, we depart from various materials included in the recent Iz Nasledya edition (many of which were previously unpublished) and also from documents preserved in Vertov\'s fund in the RGALI, in Moscow, and in the Dziga Vertov Collection of the Österreichische FIlmmuseum, in Vienna, to study the \"later period\" of Vertov\'s career, from 1938 to 1954, years during which he was able to make only a few films, but developed over 30 projects that remained unrealized. We discuss his unrealized projects for children\'s films, his experiences during the Second World War, his projects for portraits of ordinary people, his reflexive autobiographical texts of the 1940s and the last articles he wrote on the basis of his experience in the Novosti Dnia newsreel, which occupied Vertov from 1944 until his death in 1954. In Part III, we present translations to Portuguese from the Russian originals (published in the Iz Nasledya edition and preserved in the RGALI and in the Österreichische Filmmuseum) of fourteen of the filmmaker\'s texts commented in parts I and II of this work.

A presente dissertação se assume como um trabalho introdutório sobre as peculiaridades de uma prática de Teatro Documentário, demonstrando como o seu caráter estético traz em si mesmo os elementos de caráter educacional. Para isso, levantamos, teoricamente, conceitos e dados históricos, a fim de aprimorarmos nossa visão acerca do que chamamos Teatro Documentário, estabelecendo uma ponte direta com a conceituação de Documentário em Cinema, presente, em especial, nos escritos do teórico norte-americano Bill Nichols. Em seguida, exemplificamos nossas idéias com uma experiência, dentro de uma instituição de ensino, centrada em práticas embebidas por preceitos constantes no sistema de Jogos Teatrais. A encenação resultante abordou a busca por um menino romeno que, segundo algumas indicações, tocava sanfona na Praça do Patriarca, no centro da cidade de São Paulo. O tema foi pretexto para a construção palmilhada de um longo caminho urbano pelo qual se [des]escreveram muitas histórias de dor, de decepções, de desilusões e desencantos, na contramão de histórias de alegrias, de risadas, de sobrevivência, de encontro e arte. Duas estátuas-vivas, dois homens-placa, um poeta, uma moradora de rua, uma transeunte e uma gari despontaram como estrelas, numa constelação despercebida por muitos, todos os dias, nas ruas, nas praças, sob os viadutos... Uma trajetória que, enfim, revelou o próprio processo. As fontes documentais exploradas foram, em grande parte, depoimentos registrados em vídeo, evidenciando o trabalho com a imagem captada. / This dissertation presents itself as an introductory work on the peculiarities of Documentary Theater, focusing its discussion in how the approachs aesthetic aspect brings in itself the education elements. For that, theoretical concepts and historical data were collected in order to characterize our vision of Documentary Theater, establishing a link with the concepts of the documentary in Cinema, especially in the writings of the North-American scholar Bill Nicols. Secondly, we exemplify that with an experience at an educational institute, focused in practices based on the system of Theater Games. The resulting play dealt with the search of a Romanian boy that, according to some indications, played accordion at Praça Patriarca, in the downtown area of São Paulo. The theme was a pretext for the constructions of a long urban path in which many stories of pain, deception and disillusion in opposition to many stories of joy, laughter, survival, encounters and art were written. Two living statues, two homem-placas, a poet, a homeless woman, a walker and a garbage woman emerged as stars in an unnoticed constellation, everyday on the streets, squares and under the bridges. A path that revealed the process itself. The documental materials that were explored were in great part video testimonies, making evident the work with the captured image.

In 2008, Spain’s financial crisis had a great impact on the primary sector on which the nation’s ‘economic miracle’ was founded: housing.Land speculation, the increase in housing construction, and easy loans had become one of the hallmarks of twenty-first-century Spanish identity. The crisis del ladrillo (“brick crisis”) plunged the national economy into chaos and condemned many Spanish citizens to job insecurity, loss of earning power, threat of eviction, and put them at high risk of social marginalization. This dissertation studies the unusual proliferation of documentary films during the years surrounding this economic downturn about the ghettoization of the Spanish Gypsy population; a marginalization that was also indebted to the earlier economic development policies of the Franco regime and continued as Spain entered more fully into the free market in the late 1950s. As a result of Spain’s global socioeconomic exclusion due to the housing crisis, however, the Spanish Gypsy emerged in documentary film as a social actor who represented a reality that was no longer exclusive to the Other, but common to all. This project consists of a detailed analysis of three documentary films: Polígono Sur: el arte de Las Tres Mil (2002), Can Tunis (2006)and Una casa para Bernarda Alba (2011), all of which attempt to reconstruct national identity in an age of financial downturnthrough a shared emphasis on the spaces of exclusion experienced by gitanos (Gypsies). Informed by spatial theory, post-colonial studies, critical discourse analysis and theories of representation of the Other in film, the purpose of this research is to unveil the dialectical negotiation that is established between neoliberal discourse, economic crisis, and the experience of its victims (both Gypsies and non-Gypsies) in spaces of shared conflict: shanty towns, slums and housing projects. The findings of this dissertation are twofold: that the appropriation of the Gypsy population’s experiences by these documentaries reflects and at times continues legacies of internal colonization while, simultaneously, these films point the way toward representational strategies that open the door to the narratives of those who have been silenced under neoliberalism.

This study focuses on the organisation and operation of the Australian Government’s Department of Information that operated from 1939 to 1950. Equal weighting is given to the wartime and peacetime halves of the Department’s existence, allowing a balanced assessment of the Department’s role and development from its creation through to its abolition. The central issue that the Department had to address was: what was an appropriate and acceptable role for a government information organisation in Australia’s democratic political system? The issue was not primarily one of formal restrictions on the government’s power but rather of the accepted conception of the role of government. No societal consensus had been established before the Department was thrust into dealing with this issue on a practical basis. While the application of the Department’s censorship function attracted considerable comment, the procedures were clear and accepted. Practices laid down in World War I were revived and followed, while arguments were over degree rather than kind. It was mainly in the context of its expressive functions that the Department had to confront the fundamental issue of its role. This study shows that the development of the Department was driven less by sweeping ministerial pronouncements than through a series of pragmatic incremental responses to circumstances as they arose. This Departmental approach was reinforced by its organisational weakness. The Department’s options in its relations with media organisations and other government agencies were, broadly, competition, compulsion and cooperation. Competition was never widely pursued and the limits of compulsion in regard to its expressive functions were rapidly reached and withdrawn from. Particularly through to 1943 the Department struggled when it sought to assert its position against the claims of other government agencies and commercial organisations. Notwithstanding some high profile conflicts, this study shows that the Department primarily adopted a cooperative stance, seeking to supplement rather than supplant the work of other organisations. Following the 1943 Federal elections the Department was strengthened by stable and focused leadership as well as the development of its own distribution channels and outlets whose audience was primarily overseas. While some elements, such as the film unit, remained reasonably politically neutral, the Department as a whole was increasingly employed to promote the message of the Government of the day. This led to a close identification of the Department with the Labor Party, encouraging the Department’s abolition following the Coalition parties’ victory in the 1949 Federal elections. Nevertheless in developing its role the Department had remained within the mainstream of administrative practice in Australia. While some of its staff assumed a greater public profile than had been the practice for prewar public servants, this was not unusual or exceptional at that time. Partly through the efforts of the Department, the accepted conception of the role of government had expanded sufficiently by 1950 that despite the abolition of the Department most of its functions continued within the Australian public sector.

Contemporary activists in the United States find it increasingly difficult to negotiate socio-political constraints to build a social movement. Those looking for relatively safe and effective venues for participation in and communication of dissent face oppression by the hegemonic power of the political right and, in the case of climate activism, anti-climate-science discourse. I use the case study of the climate action movement to explore how contemporary activists use new communication media technologies (hereafter new media) to establish and strengthen a movement. Even though climate change affects the daily lives of ordinary Americans, no U.S. policy exists to mitigate carbon emissions. New media offer the potential for new, safer venues for participation in and communication about social movements. I used empirical qualitative and critical methods to analyze the communication of climate change activism in Texas, USA. I examined how Step It Up! 2007 (SIU) used new media to facilitate or constrain public participation in climate action. I used critical discourse analysis to examine information provided to citizens on the SIU website, and I attended the SIU event in San Antonio, Texas. I found SIU organizers successfully used new media to increase agitation and to shift power away from the federal government to the local grassroots level. I recommend activists use new media as a unifying tool, to provide a fragmented and apathetic citizenry with a message that can be used to affect change. I conducted a critical rhetorical analysis of Working Film’s 2007 documentary on global warming, Everything’s Cool, as a means to suggest how, and in what ways, activists use new media to build a movement. I also hosted an activist screening. I examined how new media facilitate or constrain communication of movement messages. I found activists used the documentary and open source activism as a rhetorical exercise in agitation to refigure public understanding of climate science and attitudes toward U.S. climate change policy. Everything’s Cool positioned climate activism, and participating in the movement broadly, as accessible and acceptable, helping to rhetorically constitute a new kind of citizen activist, shifting power roles to a grassroots network of local leaders.