Documentaries were always forms of re-presentation
"But as a strategy and a form, the interview–oriented film has problems of its own. ... the film–maker with intertitles, making patently clear what has been implicit all along: documentaries always were forms of re–presentation, never clear windows onto 'reality'; the film–maker was always a participant–witness and an active fabricator of meaning, a producer of cinematic discourse rather than a neautral or all–knowing reporter of the way things truely are."
(David MacDougall p.260, 1985)
MacDougall, David. "The Voice of Documentary", in Movies and Methods: Volume II, Bill Nichols ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985.
Fig.1 Dana Perry and her son Evan Scott Perry, at age 3, HBO documentary "Boy Interrupted" [http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/boy–interrupted]
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
The new definition of scholarship: how will it change the professoriate?
"Several scholars have begun to see change in the definition of scholarship as demanding a change in our understanding of epistemology. Eugene Rice constructs a matrix of knowledge based on dichotomies of active practice vs. reflective observation, and concrete, connected knowing vs. abstract, analytic knowing. He points out that the push for a more concrete, connected way of knowing requires a multidimensional pedagogy. He quotes Cornell West as saying, 'To put it crudely, ideas, words, and language are not mirrors which copy the 'real' or 'objective' world but rather tools with which we cope with 'our' world' (Rice, 1996, p. 16). The stuff of scholarship is all intertwined within itself and connected to real life, not separate from it. The faculty who would engage this pedagogy must have grounding in a rich model of scholarship in order to become what Rice calls a complete scholar:
The complete scholar would have a sense of the way in which different forms of scholarly work interrelate and enrich one another, and would be capable of moving with ease from one scholarly task to another. The tensions between connected knowing and analytical capabilities, on the one hand, and reflection and active practice, on the other, would be nurtured and built upon rather than resisted and minimized (p. 22)."
(Arthur L. Dirks, 4 December 1998)
Rice, R. E. (1996. ). Making a place for the new American scholar (Working paper No. 1). Washington, D.C.: American Association for Higher Education. In Forum on Faculty Roles and Rewards).
Dirks, Arthur L. (1998). The new definition of scholarship: How will it change the professoriate? Published on–line by author (http://webhost.bridgew.edu/adirks/ald/papers/skolar.htm). Bridgewater, Mass. Boston.
Fig.1 A Community Concern, 'Bronx Youth Forum to End School Overcrowding'.
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
