How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck is a 1976 documentary film

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 by German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 director Werner Herzog

Werner Herzog

Werner Herzog Stipetić , known as Werner Herzog, is a German film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and opera director.He is often considered as one of the greatest figures of the New German Cinema, along with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Margarethe von Trotta, Volker Schlöndorff, Werner...

, produced by Werner Herzog Filmproduktion. It is a 44 minute film documenting the World Livestock Auctioneer Championship

World Livestock Auctioneer Championship

The World Livestock Auctioneer Championship is an annual competition of livestock auctioneers who practice the auction chant typical of rural areas in the United States and Canada...

 held in New Holland, Pennsylvania

New Holland, Pennsylvania

New Holland is a borough in Lancaster County in Pennsylvania, USA. The population was 5,092 at the 2000 census. New Holland was settled in 1728 by John Michael and John Phillip Ranc . Before it became known as New Holland, it had been called Hog Swamp, Earltown and New Design...

. Herzog has said that he believes auctioneering to be "the last poetry possible, the poetry of capitalism."

Herzog describes the auctioneering as an "extreme language ... frightening but quite beautiful at the same time." Herzog used two of the featured auctioneers as actors in his later film Stroszek

Stroszek

Stroszek is a 1977 film by German director Werner Herzog. It was written in four days specifically for Bruno S. and was shot in Berlin, two towns in Wisconsin, and in North Carolina. Most of the lead roles are played by non-actors.-Plot:...

.