Customer Reviews

States of Emergency: Documentaries, Wars, Democracies

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One of the most important books in documentary studies in the past few years, "States of Emergency" is well-written, profound, and disturbing. Zimmermann is opening a whole new angle on the field.

Randolph Lewis (author of Emile de Antonio: Radical Filmmaker in Cold War America)

We urgently need a new world image order!

(If that's not a call to arms, I don't know what is!)

So begins Patricia Zimmermann's wonderfully, powerful new expose on the current state of the world. Right from the start I was amazed at how she was able to capture an incredible amount of energy and emotion in such a simple way. The introduction absolutely blew me away. The urgency she created is unlike anything I have ever read before ... honestly. I felt like she was sitting right there in front of me, trying to drill it into my brain. AWESOME.

You have to realize, that this kind of power and urgency does NOT exist anywhere outside of academia (that I can think of). It doesn't happen in the workplace, it doesn't happen on the news, and it's doesn't happen on Oprah. It's AMAZING.

And, hello, women aren't supposed to talk like this. Especially moms that wear fashionable clothes that need to be dry-cleaned. She is taking on transnational corporations, nation states, and rich white dudes ... if I were her publisher, I would be fitting her for a bullet-proof vest right now. Hello!

Do not be fooled by any attempt at categorizing this book, they do no justice here. Zimmermann covers nearly 20 areas of studies, from film to finance from politics to health care. Think about it, how can one talk about issues in the world today without overlapping these areas of study? They are all intertwined! Zimmermann exposes the seams of the simple cause and effect relationship and why it has NEVER existed. Be ready, it will rock your world.

You know what's really incredible, Zimmermann has recorded the history of the public space in the later part of the twentieth century. She did it, it's right there! What other document has done this? Do you know how incredible that is? Do you know how many people don't want the public to know what happened? It is now impossible for them to try to re-write history. She snuck in the backdoor. There is no need to theorize about what happened, she just wrote it all down for future generations to see. That's amazing.