The Act of Documenting Documentary Film in the 21st Century

by Winston, Brian; Vanstone, Gail; Chi, Wang

• ISBN13: 9781501309168
• ISBN10: 1501309161
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2017-01-12
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

Documentary has never attracted such audiences, never been produced with such ease from so many corners of the globe, never embraced such variety of expression. The very distinctions between the filmed, the filmer and the spectator are being dissolved. The Act of Documenting addresses what this means for documentary's 21st century position as a genus in the “class” cinema; for its foundations as, primarily, a scientistic, eurocentric and patriarchal discourse; for its future in a world where assumptions of photographic image integrity cannot be sustained. Unpacked are distinctions between performance and performativy and between different levels of interaction, linearity and hypertextuality, engagement and impact, ethics and conditions of reception. Winston, Vanstone and Wang Chi explore and celebrate documentary's potentials in the digital age.

Author Biography

Brian Winston is Professor of Communications and Lincoln Chair at the University of Lincoln, UK. He has held senior academic posts at UK National Film and Television School, New York University, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Wales (Cardiff), Westminster University and the University of Lincoln where, before his present position, he was a Pro-Vice Chancellor. In 1985, he won an Emmy for documentary script writing.

Gail Vanstone is the director of the Culture and Expression program at York University, Canada. She is concerned with the affordances of new technology for the documentary and women's film production. Her history of the women's film unit at Canada's National Film Board, D is for Daring, was published in 2007.

Wang Chi is a doctoral student at the University of Lincoln, UK. He has published widely on the documentary in Chinese, including the edited volumes (with Brian Winston) Documenting and Methods (2014).

Table of Contents

PART ONE: TROUBLES
Prologue - The Act of Documenting I
Chapter 1 - A Walk in the Woods - Integrity
Chapter 2 - To Thine Own Self Be True - Performance
Chapter 3 - Takt - Taste
PART TWO: ALTERNATIVES
Prologue - The Act of Documenting II
Chapter 4 - "Clicktivism" - Participation
Chapter 5 - To Live to Witness - Memory
Chapter 6 - Discarding the Master's Tools - New Knowledges
Afterword - The Great Archive of Humanity
Filmography
Notes
Index