Book chapter
Chronicling sport, branding institutions: The television sports documentary from broadcast to cable
Routledge Handbook of Sport Communication, pp.142-150
Routledge
2013
DOI: 10.4324/9780203123485-22
Abstract
any of documentary film’s most renowned works take sport as their topic. These productions celebrate sport’s beauty, explore its history, and probe its complex and intimate relationship to society. Leni Riefenstahl’s Olympia (1938) – perhaps the most infamous sports documentary ever made – is a Nazi-funded celebration of the 1936 Berlin summer Olympic Games. Steve James’ Hoop Dreams (1994) interrogates the common myth that basketball provides a realistic means through which young inner-city African American men can improve their economic circumstances. Leon Gast’s Academy Award-winning When We Were Kings (1996) uses the 1974 “Rumble in the Jungle” (wherein Muhammad Ali beat the younger and heavily favored George Foreman to regain the heavyweight boxing title) to consider the intersections among sport, race, and politics. Though distinct in form and purpose, each of these now canonical documentaries suggests that sport provides a lens through which to illuminate and comment on society’s values, beliefs, and attitudes.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Chronicling sport, branding institutions: The television sports documentary from broadcast to cable
- Creators
- Travis Vogan - University of Iowa, American Studies
- Contributors
- Paul M. Pedersen (Editor)
- Resource Type
- Book chapter
- Publication Details
- Routledge Handbook of Sport Communication, pp.142-150
- Publisher
- Routledge
- DOI
- 10.4324/9780203123485-22
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 2013
- Academic Unit
- American Studies; Journalism and Mass Communication
- Record Identifier
- 9984269248702771
Metrics
24 Record Views