Emile De Antonio: A Reader

An absorbing collection of writings by and about an American original.

Innovative documentary filmmaker; friend of Andy Warhol, John Cage, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and other leading figures of the New York art world; radical leftist critic of the Establishment; and legendary bon vivant: Emile de Antonio (1919-1989) was a larger-than-life personality and a key figure in the development of postwar American cinema. The films de Antonio made between 1963 and 1989-including Point of Order, Rush to Judgment, In the Year of the Pig, Painters Painting, and Millhouse: A White Comedy-revolutionized the documentary format and inspired a generation of artists and filmmakers. A decade after his death, his cinematic legacy-ranging from the brilliantly edited compilation of the 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings that helped construct Senator Joseph McCarthy’s reputation as a rogue demagogue (Point of Order) to a meditative juxtaposition of documents about F.B.I. director J. Edgar Hoover and intimate footage drawn from the filmmaker’s own life (Mr. Hoover and I)-remains unparalleled in American documentary film.

Emile de Antonio: A Reader is the first full-length volume devoted to this major American filmmaker. It collects interviews with and writings by de Antonio; reviews and other critical material that detail the genesis, production history, and reception of his films; a comprehensive filmography; and an in-depth biographical essay. Offering a long-overdue assessment of de Antonio’s career, this indispensable book also makes a significant contribution to our understanding of American independent cinema at its most politically engaged.