Author Archive

Articles by Alissa Quart | Email the Author

 

1. Reality Check

   How to recount a plague

   September 17, 2012 06:50 AM

   How to Survive A Plague is the best AIDS documentary I’ve seen. Why? Because it is important, yes, but so are so many other AIDS docs out this year and last, including Vito, HBO’s recent... Continue reading

2. Reality Check

   Is Project Runway saving criticism?

   August 27, 2012 06:50 AM

   This Thursday, I was watching an episode of the 10th season of the now ancient and seemingly irrelevant Lifetime show Project Runway: It was the one where fashion-challenged friends arrived for a humiliating makeover involving shiny fabrics. But watching it,... Continue reading

3. Reality Check

   Collapsing the line between documentary and fiction

   August 13, 2012 06:50 AM

   This week, you can on-demand a documentary that uses insanely unorthodox methods to get at the truth and judge for yourself whether this approach is acceptable for nonfiction, or not. The film in question is by Danish director... Continue reading

4. Reality Check

   Viral before the Internet

   July 30, 2012 06:50 AM

   Was there viral documentary film and video before the Internets? You bet. As Kliph Nesteroff wrote recently in The Awl, viralness or “virality” as he calls it, was around long before the Nyan cat. Lots of... Continue reading

5. Reality Check

   Vimeo: AuteurTube

   July 16, 2012 06:50 AM

   The Times mag the other week noticed that amateur star “YouTubers” could make six figures through the site’s comedy channels. But people filming verite vignettes or shooting true tales professionally are probably posting on Vimeo.... Continue reading

6. Reality Check

   Push Girls transcends its genre

   July 2, 2012 07:00 AM

   In her new column, Reality Check, Alissa Quart delves into all things documentary. The new Sundance Channel reality-show Push Girls, about four paralyzed women, is unexpectedly riveting. It's also unseemly. It’s the story of four friends in Hollywood... Continue reading

7. Reports

   Get Real

   January 17, 2012 06:00 AM

   Dionicio is a heroin addict who was terribly abused as a child and turned to drugs and crime when he was a teenager. Now, he speaks directly to the camera about his struggles, then ties off... Continue reading

8. Reports

   The Long Tale

   September 20, 2011 06:00 AM

   When author Jon Krakauer started looking into the altruistic claims of his former friend, the best-selling author of Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson, he uncovered quite a story. Mortenson was... Continue reading

9. Feature

   The Trouble With Experts

   June 29, 2010 08:00 AM

   Actress Jenny McCarthy’s favorite line is, “My son is my science.” She’s an autism activist who insists that vaccines caused her son’s neurological disorder, a claim that has near-zero support in scientific literature. Years ago, she might... Continue reading

10. Feature

    The Rise of True Fiction

    December 8, 2009 02:30 PM

    Staff Sergeant Will James fiddles with the bomb like an IT tech on methamphetamine. He works quickly despite his seventy-pound bomb suit and, as he labors on one IED, discovers five more hidden nearby in the sandy dirt of... Continue reading

11. Feature

    Expensive Gifts

    July 24, 2009 08:30 AM

    One evening in February 2009, the artist Shepard Fairey spoke at the New York Public Library. He was discussing his famous silkscreen poster Hope, which bore Barack Obama’s face, shadowed by swirling red and blue patterns. At the event, Fairey... Continue reading

12. Essay

    The Sarcastic Times

    March 3, 2009 08:37 PM

    On a Wednesday night in December, Rachel Maddow, in a toreador-style black jacket, waits for her show to start. She types last-minute notes on her computer with the intensity of a graduate student. At the 30 Rock news television studio,... Continue reading

13. Essay

    Music Lessons

    November 18, 2008 11:22 AM

    He takes the stage clad in a black turtleneck. his famous line is, “Green is the new red, white, and blue.” Tonight, and other nights, he is paid tens of thousands of dollars to perform. He spent a year touring... Continue reading

14. Essay

    Flickring Out

    July 24, 2008 09:00 AM

    Clichés are sometimes true. Here’s one—photographers don’t like to give speeches. At a recent event, photographer Antonin Kratochvil screened slideshows of his work: American soldiers coolly observing the Iraqi distressed and dead; Lebanese militant youths standing restlessly near decaying... Continue reading

15. Behind the News

    Obsessed with Our Destroyers

    May 28, 2008 11:18 AM

    We the media are obsessed with our destroyers. We could even be said to love (or love to write about or edit) the many individuals who are taking us down. These include the mega-moguls and their hedge fund cousins who... Continue reading

16. Cover Story

    Lost Media, Found Media

    May 20, 2008 09:00 AM

    If there were an ashram for people who worship contemplative long-form journalism, it would be the Nieman Conference on Narrative Journalism. This March, at the Sheraton Boston Hotel, hundreds of journalists, authors, students, and aspirants came for the weekend... Continue reading