Divining Movies from Non-Fiction

The Washington Post recently discussed the implications of movies made from non-fiction.

From the piece...

There are at least four films in circulation today that take their original source material from substantial works of nonfiction. On April 21, PBS will broadcast Robert Kenner's "Food, Inc.," an enlightening and stomach-churning exposé of the industrialized business of food production. It not only grew out of a planned collaboration with Eric Schlosser, author of the book "Fast Food Nation," but has inspired its own book, a collection of essays called "Food, Inc.: A Participant Guide."

"The Art of the Steal," a polemic about the magnificent but troubled Barnes Collection of postimpressionist art in Philadelphia, was built substantially on research in John Anderson's excellent book "Art Held Hostage." "What's the Matter With Kansas?," which opened in D.C. on March 19, is a reverie based on Thomas Frank's powerful indictment of cultural politics in Kansas. And then there's "Green Zone," a straightforward fictional shoot-'em-up "inspired by" Washington Post journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran's best-selling "Imperial Life in the Emerald City."

They are all very different films, with different trajectories and different relations to the books that ground them. Their directors, for the most part, describe the process that led from book to screen in terms similar to directors working with famous novels: The book, they inevitably say, must be set aside, so the film can come to life.