Abstract
In this article we consider the growing interest in recent years in the use of documentary strategies in the wold of contemporary art, film and performing arts and explore some of the central epistemological assumptions underpinning the persistent idea that the documentary should be equated with ‘non-fiction’. Following Stella Bruzzi we argue that if documentary theory maintains objectivity as the primary measure of value, it will inevitably and continuously arrive at the conclusion that the documentary genre is fundamentally flawed. Instead, we propose to move beyond the ‘realist epistemology’ of documentary theory and focus on the ‘documentary real’, i.e. the specific performativity of the reality constructed in and by the documentary genre. In the last paragraphs, we introduce the various articles that address the “documentary real” in this special issue.
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Notes
The ‘documentary effect’ in that sense is thus a variation on what Roland Barthes called l’effet du réel or the ‘reality effect’ (Barthes 1986).
According to Bruzzi the influence of this presumption is especially clear in the way in which most film historians plot the history of documentary film as a linear progression towards an ever more truthful or authentic representation of reality. Technological advancements (e.g. smaller camera that allow film makers to approach their subjects more closely) are seen as an important influence to further improve the documentary. Bruzzi rejects this teleological film history. Still, this model of linear progression remains strong and resonates in the argument (and hope) that digital technologies like digital video streaming could revolutionize the ability of media users to give direct access to reality.
For Bruzzi, performativity is a defining property of the every documentary, not only of the genre of the so-called ‘performative documentary’ (documentaries that foreground elements of the documentary that usually remain hidden, for example when the documentary filmmaker takes a central position in the film ‘acting’ as its author). (See Bruzzi 2006: p. 153ff).
See for example Walking with Dinosaurs (2013).
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Le Roy, F., Vanderbeeken, R. The Documentary Real: Thinking Documentary Aesthetics. Found Sci 23, 197–205 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10699-016-9513-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10699-016-9513-8