Abstract
The production and distribution of social-issue documentaries can have a wide range of significant impact on community organizations, educational institutions, citizens, and policy makers. What this article seeks to demonstrate, using the example of Tracy Huling's Yes, In My Backyard, is the utility of an “issue-centered model” that allows a comprehensive and systematic analysis of the full range of political impact, including impact on producers, activists, and policymakers. Much of the way Yes, In My Backyard “worked” within the rural prison issue network parallels the way that policy analysis can affect public agendas and public policy. Although many documentaries can be regarded as “implicit” pieces of policy analysis, Huling's is the most explicit, and her measure of success is how well her work can alter the agenda of activists and policy makers, stimulate research to support policy change, and then help implement that change.