POINT OF ORDER

Film is anything that passes through a projector. Even white leader, if youre dull enough. What counts is on the screen and what it does to people. Raw material of Point of Order was shot by two network cameras in a fixed position grinding away for 188 hours during the 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings. The movie works because there are no tricks in it. It was stripped down to where it really mattered. The aesthetics was the politics, it was the character, the tone and voice, it was America. Thats what movies are, not beautiful shots. What interests me more than anything in movies is structure. The hearings themselves were untrue, as the historical present usually is. The structure not only makes a new kind of documentary feature-length with a story and no narration , it also made a political truth. Point of Order was the first American documentary to play theatrically after World War II. (Emile de Antonio)