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]
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Senses of Cinema: Australian-based online film journal
"Senses of Cinema is an online journal devoted to the serious and eclectic discussion of cinema. We believe cinema is an art that can take many forms, from the industrially–produced blockbuster to the hand–crafted experimental work; we also aim to encourage awareness of the histories of such diverse forms. As an Australian–based journal, we have a special commitment to the regular, wide–ranging analysis and critique of Australian cinema, past and present.
Senses of Cinema is primarily concerned with ideas about particular films or bodies of work, but also with the regimes (ideological, economic and so forth) under which films are produced and viewed, and with the more abstract theoretical and philosophical issues raised by film study. As well, we believe that a cinephilic understanding of the moving image provides the necessary basis for a radical critique of other media and of the global 'image culture'."
(Nicola White, Senses of Cinema Inc)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
