Have you seen You Can See Everything? Co-directed by Lance Oppenheim and Nathan Fielder, the film follows Elizabeth Holmes, infamous founder of the company Theranos, and her partner Billy Evans in the month leading up to the beginning of her prison sentence.

Without giving too much away, the film explores ideas of truth, accountability, and (perhaps most of all) how well we can know another person. We watch as Nathan, who is drawn into relationship with both Elizabeth and Billy, struggles with trying to understand what Elizabeth is thinking. To what extent can we trust what Elizabeth and Billy, who have willingly invited a documentary crew into her home, are showing us? To what extent can we trust Nathan to remain objective or neutral (if such qualities are possible to achieve) when he’s in such close proximity to his subjects? What do filmmakers owe their audience?

Thinking through these questions, I found a few articles through the Library’s databases to read more about the ethics of documentary filmmaking.

Documentary-for-the-Other: Relationships, Ethics and (Observational) Documentary by Kate Nash (2011) pulls from the philosophical work of Emmanuel Levinas to explore alternative ethics around documentaries, especially those in which a relationship is formed between the documentarian and the subject of the film. Observational documentaries, “like fiction films, … privilege showing over telling, providing the audience with the impression that they are witnessing lived time” (p. 225). How then do we navigate the ethical issues that arise? The article walks through some of the previous literature on documentary filmmaking and the way that definitions of what a documentary is or does shape what a documentarian might be responsible for. It then dives into Levinas’ arguments and exploring how they might shift how we approach these issues.

Cinematic journalism: the political economy and ‘emotional truth’ of documentary film by Gino Canella (2024) explores the relationship between journalism and documentary, looking at examples of newsrooms making documentaries to recapture audiences who no longer engage with broadcast television. Through 24 interviews with journalistic filmmakers, the article attempts to answer to questions: “How is the political economy of media affecting filmmakers’ editorial decisions and aesthetic choices? And, how do seemingly commonplace audiovisual and production techniques – such as music, lighting, sound design, and directing – complicate journalistic norms?” (p. 70). These interviews revealed three common themes – that the current digital media landscape has shaped the ways that documentaries are produced and distributed; that the relationship between filmmakers, participants (or subjects), and the audience inform the ethical frameworks of the documentarians; and that “the ‘emotional truth’ of documentary storytelling forces filmmakers to reevaluate their conceptions of objectivity and neutrality” (p. 71). 

A few other articles of interest:

• Telling stories: the narrative study of documentary ethics by Kate Nash (2012)
• The ethics of documentary filmmaking: an empirical turn by Willemien Sanders (2012)
• On Ethics and Documentary: A Real and Actual Truth by Garnet C. Butchart (2006)
• Ethics in Documentary Film Production: Asserting and Changing Norms by Patricia Aufderheide (2024)

Are you in the midst of studying for Anatomy (BIOL 111/112)? The Library has some resources that you might find helpful!

Online, you have access to the database Anatomy TV – you can access this on your computer from home by logging in for off-campus access with you UAA or APU student credentials. Find the database on our databases page under the letter “A”

Anatomy TV has sections for Clinical Imaging, Functional Anatomy, and Gross Anatomy. Under Gross Anatomy, you can choose from the 3D Atlas, which lets you click through images from many angles of parts of the body, or 3D Realtime, which allows you to manipulate a 3D model.

In both versions, you can hover over any particular nerve, muscle, bone, artery etc and see it’s name. If you click, you’ll get more information.

In the Functional Anatomy section, you can see animations of flexion/extension and abduction/adduction of different body parts as well.

In-person, the Library has anatomy models that you can check out – these are for in-library use only. You can find a complete listing of the models available here.

If you have further questions, please don’t hesitate to ask us!

Spooky season is here and we’re celebrating by highlighting Shirley Jackson, a classic horror and mystery author and one of my personal favorites. Jackson’s work was published throughout the 1940s, 50s and 60s until her death in 1965. She lead a difficult adult life; her husband was apparently quite horrible. She is a master of slowly building dread. I particularly love The Haunting of Hill House, which has been adapted for the screen more than once.

We have a few of Shirley Jackson’s books and short stories available here at the library – browse them below:

Novels and stories : The lottery, The haunting of Hill House, We have always lived in the castle, other stories and sketches by Shirley Jackson. This collection includes several of Shirley Jackson’s classic stories. This is a great way to dive right into the Shirley Jackson’s most well known work.

The sundial by Shirley Jackson is a novel about a wealthy family who believes they have been chosen to survive through the apocalypse.

The bird’s nest by Shirley Jackson follows a woman with multiple personality disorder.

Come along with me; part of a novel, sixteen stories, and three lectures by Shirley Jackson, edited by Stanley Edgar Hyman. Come Along With Me was a novel that  Jackson began the year before she passed away and never finished. This collection was released posthumously by her husband.

Learn more about Shirley Jackson’s writing and life, with these books:

Shirley Jackson by Lenemaja Friedman

Shirley Jackson : a study of the short fiction by Joan Wylie Hall.

Private demons : the life of Shirley Jackson by Judy Oppenheimer

If you have any questions, as always, don’t hesitate to ask us!

Along with the fall semester, so too has soup season arrived. There is something about enjoying a warming bowl at home after a day of walking through the campus’ various wind tunnels that makes it all worth it. I have a few go-to soups that I make year after year, but it’s also fun to try new recipes. When looking for inspiration, I like to browse through the cookbooks at the Library. Here are a few that I pulled out – but there are lots more to look at! The cookbooks generally can be found in the Ts but if you’re looking for soups especially, you can beeline to TX757.

Vietnamese Home Cooking by Charles Phan was not actually with the other soups, but when I think of warm comforting soup, I instantly think of Vietnamese food. The book has a section about soup – including how to make pork, chicken, or beef stock yourself. A largely inactive process, you could let the pot do it’s work while you study. The Pho Gá (chicken noodle soup) and the Cháo (chicken rice porridge) looked especially comforting to me. I like that this book includes cultural context, photos, and stories about the dishes.

Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home published by the Moosewood Collective, is from its namesake restaurant in Ithaca, NY. My mom has several of their cookbooks on her bookshelf, so I associate these books with home. Also not exclusively a soup book, this one includes sections on quickbreads, dips, salads, beans, and grains as well. Many, but not all, the recipes included are vegetarian and could probably be made vegan pretty easily. I’m excited to try The Golden Cheddar Cheese Soup and the Tomato Garlic Soup with Tortellini.

I grabbed Love Soup by Anna Thomas because I saw that it won a James Beard award. I wouldn’t put all my eggs in the James Beard basket, but I was curious to see what might have elicited such praise for a book with a rather unassuming cover. The book divides up soups into fall/winter and spring/summer and also includes recipes for breads, spreads, and salads to make a complete meal (though I’m a big advocate of soup as complete meal!). Browsing through the recipes, I see a lot of intriguing flavor combinations – like Persimmon Soup, Asparagus Bisque with Fresh Dill, and Tomato and Fennel Soup with Blood Orange. I’m particularly interested in trying The Sopa de Ajo and the Farro with Stewed and Roasted Winter Vegetables. I’d also love to try making the Parmesan and Fennel Biscotti – a savory biscotti for soup sounds so fun!

The last book I chose was Soups Stews & Chilis from the editors of Cook’s Illustrated. I typically find Cook’s Illustrated recipes to be quite reliable and I like that the book includes from general tips and tricks at the beginning to help you succeed in making a soup you’re happy with. I’d like to try their French Onion Soup (I have a real weakness for French Onion), Black Bean Soup, and Brazilian Fish Stew with Coconut Milk. The book includes a chapter on curry which I wouldn’t necessarily put in the same category with soup and stew, but maybe we can just consider that a bonus.

I hope you feel inspired to make some soup this fall! You can browse through our cookbooks (which include much more than just soup of course) or, as always, ask us if you’d like help finding something specific.

There are so many subscriptions to keep up with and paywalls can make it hard to access the news – these can make it challenging to stay informed about what’s going on. That’s where the Library comes in – did you know that you can access some newspapers for free through the Consortium Library?

If you are on campus, you’re good to go – if you are off campus, be sure to log in for off-campus access using the link at the top of the Consortium Library website before trying to click any of the links below.

To access the Anchorage Daily News, go here. The second option listed is text only and will show you all the original articles written by local journalists in the ADN. Please note that the text only option will not show you any of the articles from other papers, such as AP News articles that the ADN might republish about national news. To see those articles, click on the third option which includes images. You’ll be able to read through the paper as if it were printed! This database includes newspapers from as far back as 1946, so it can be a great resource for historical research on local events.

Using this database, you can access the New York Times – just note that the database includes everything printed in their daily paper, but does not include web-only content. Newsbank’s America’s News Magazines database includes a number of publications from the lower 48 – you can browse those here.

Need help finding a particular article or newspaper? Reach out to us at the Information & Research Help Desk!