Why Free Market Think Tanks Need Documentaries

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Why Free Market Think Tanks Need Documentaries
Jay W. Richards, Ph.D.
Research Fellow Director, Acton Media
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Hayeks Insight The Role of Public Intellectuals

• In light of recent history it is somewhat
  curious that this decisive power of the
  professional secondhand dealers in ideas should
  not yet be more generally recognized.
• -F.A. Hayek

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The Persuasive Tool of Choice

• Just as the pamphlet was the persuasive tool of
  choice during the American Revolution, the
  documentary has become a valuable tool in
  politics and culture today. You can bring it out
  very quickly, without spending a lot of moneythe
  technology makes it possible.
• -Lee Troxler, a former Reagan aide and
  documentary filmmaker

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Technology makes it possible . . .
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Why Documentaries?

• In our highly visual age, it is the best genre in
  the film medium for combining message and
  metaphor in a way that is entertaining,
  educational, and persuasive. Few other genres
  allow expert testimony and arguments (message)
  alongside narrative, visual effects, symbolic
  imagery, and score (metaphor).

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Two Competing Tendencies . . .
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The Think Tanks Tendency

• If A, B, C, D, then E.
• A.
• B.
• C.
• D.
• Therefore, E.

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The Film Makers Tendency

• Film being a subjectively generated medium . . .
  cannot credibly postulate, as one can in print,
  the existence of such and such a phenomenon and
  reinforce its arguments with objectively gathered
  evidence. Rather, its purpose is artistic, to
  relate a way of seeing and feeling. At its best
  the documentary can take something apparently
  banal and unmeaningful, and give us a heightened,
  subtly argued vision that is charged with
  significance for our own lives.
• -Michael Rabiger, Directing the Documentary

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The Central Challenge Balancing Message and
Metaphor

• The idea-oriented member of the team will
  probably view a documentary as a means. The
  artist/filmmaker will probably view it as an end
  in itself. To succeed, you must balance these
  competing tendencies.

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What Were Up Against
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