''Down and Out in America'' is a 1986 American
Oscar
Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to:
People
* Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms.
* Oscar (Irish mythology), ...
-winning
documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...
directed by
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
winner
Lee Grant
Lee Grant (born Lyova Haskell Rosenthal; October 31, during the mid-1920s) is an American actress, documentarian, and director. She made her film debut in 1951 as a young shoplifter in William Wyler's ''Detective Story'', co-starring Kirk Dougl ...
.
Summary
It is a biting critique of
Reaganomics
Reaganomics (; a portmanteau of ''Reagan'' and ''economics'' attributed to Paul Harvey), or Reaganism, refers to the neoliberal economic policies promoted by U.S. President Ronald Reagan during the 1980s. These policies are commonly associat ...
and exploration of
poverty in the United States
In the United States, poverty has both social and political implications. In 2020, there were 37.2 million people in poverty. Some of the many causes include income inequality, inflation, unemployment, debt traps and poor education.Western, B ...
. It won an
Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...
, tying with ''
Artie Shaw: Time Is All You've Got''.
Production
Produced by Grant's husband
Joseph Feury and Milton Justice, this was the first Academy Award for
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
.
''Down and Out in America'' was produced under Grant and husband/producer
Joseph Feury's production deal with
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
. The film was greenlit while Grant was still on location in
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
on another project. She reportedly told Feury that the subject was too important and that if she could not return in time he should let another director make the film. He refused and convinced her to wrap her current project as early as possible and make the documentary.
Reception and legacy
The film received largely positive reviews. ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' felt that "''DOWN AND OUT IN AMERICA'' is clear about its message: The system has failed, and the American dream has died.". The film went on to receive the
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
for Best Documentary feature, the first Oscar for any cable network.
The film's negative has been preserved in the
Academy Film Archive
The Academy Film Archive is part of the Academy Foundation, established in 1944 with the purpose of organizing and overseeing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ educational and cultural activities, including the preservation of m ...
. It is regularly taught in university film and journalism classes. A new print premiered at New York's
Film Forum
Film Forum is a nonprofit movie theater at 209 West Houston Street in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. It began in 1970 as an alternative screening space for independent films, with 50 folding chairs, one projector and a $19,000 annual budget. Ka ...
in late 2019 as part of a 13-film retrospective of Grant's work as both actor and director, and the kick off of the film's digital and repertory re-release. Grant and
Barbara Kopple
Barbara Kopple (born July 30, 1946) is an American film director known primarily for her documentary work.
She has won two Academy Awards, the first in 1977 for ''Harlan County, USA'', about a Kentucky miners' strike, /sup> and the second in ...
introduced the Film Forum screening.
It remains one of the most influential portraits of
Reaganomics
Reaganomics (; a portmanteau of ''Reagan'' and ''economics'' attributed to Paul Harvey), or Reaganism, refers to the neoliberal economic policies promoted by U.S. President Ronald Reagan during the 1980s. These policies are commonly associat ...
. In April 2020, in response to the
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
crisis, the re-release of Grant's documentaries was re-imagined as one of the first examples of
virtual cinema Virtual cinema is a video-on-demand streaming service facilitated by independent film distributors and art-house theaters to release new films and share profits. Under the service, part of the admission price supports a physically located theater.
...
and became "the first virtual repertory series."
References
External links
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*
*
''Down and Out in America'' on MUBIOfficial trailer
{{Lee Grant
1986 films
American documentary films
Best Documentary Feature Academy Award winners
Films directed by Lee Grant
Documentary films about poverty in the United States
1986 documentary films
1980s English-language films
1980s American films