Selling Direct Cinema: Robert Drew and the Rhetoric of Reality.

Documentary filmmaker Robert Drew's rhetoric about his observational approach to filmmaking served a centrally important function: to sell his approach to networks and sponsors for funding and distribution. This rhetoric depended on the contexts in which Drew discussed his filmmaking approach, a context that included a television industry that was wary, if not hostile, to independent news producers; sponsors that were resistant to making significant financial investments in television journalism; and an observational style that was commercially unproven, expensive, and time-consuming. Drew's rhetoric also shifted over time as industry circumstances and opportunities changed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]