Hearts and Minds (1974)

For many, this year's bumper crop of controversial documentaries playing in theaters nationwide seemed like a sudden explosion of riches in the genre. History shows, however, that documentaries questioning the status quo have in fact been an integral part of our culture for generations, giving film artists and audiences a means to express their particular, and sometimes contentious, points of view. Politics, civil rights, labor, punk rock, the Blacklist — these and other topical issues have found their way into movie houses and into the minds of viewers through documentaries, sometimes changing the very conditions they were investigating.
 
The Academy's inaugural John Huston Lecture on Documentary Film is named to honor Huston's legacy as witnessed in his controversial World War II documentaries, Report from the Aleutians (1943), The Battle of San Pietro (1944), and Let There Be Light (1946). Let There Be Light was banned for decades by the very agency which commissioned it, the U.S. War Department, and was finally released in 1980. The Battle of San Pietro was not released publicly until 1945, when General George Marshall removed its "classified" status.

"Documentaries of Dissent" will take a look back at some key films that exemplify alternative voices in documentaries, starting with Huston's films from the 1940s, up through last year's Oscar®-winning The Fog of War.

	Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt (1989)

Hosted by Kenneth Turan, film critic for the Los Angeles Times, panelists and film excerpts from their work will include:

Peter Davis (Producer of Hearts and Minds, Oscar winner for Best Documentary Feature, 1974)

Penelope Spheeris (Producer/Director of The Decline of Western Civilization, 1981)

Rob Epstein (Producer/Director of The Times of Harvey Milk, Oscar Winner for Best Documentary Feature, 1984 and Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt, Oscar Winner for Best Documentary Feature, 1989).

Barbara Trent (Producer/Director of The Panama Deception, Oscar Winner for Best Documentary Feature, 1992).

Part two of "Documentaries of Dissent," scheduled for 2005, will focus on a selection of theatrical documentaries released in 2004 that have played a critical role in the current debates over political and social issues.