El documental de objetivación: realismo, estética y temporalidad

Pol Capdevila

doi:10.15581/003.28.35942

Pol Capdevila e-mail

(Login required)

PDF (

256) PDF (Español) (

38)

View in DADUN

Published: Oct 1, 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15581/003.28.35942

How to Cite

Capdevila, P. (2015). The objectifying documentary: realism, aesthetics and temporality. Communication & Society, 28(4), 67-83. https://doi.org/10.15581/003.28.35942

Authors

Pol Capdevila e-mail

(Login required)

Universidad Pompeu Fabra.

Abstract

578

This article deals with the representation of reality in documentary and describes a new category of documentary, namely, the objectifying documentary. The objectifying documentary originated in the 2000s, with examples such as Bosnia. Lost Images (2003), and questions a certain type of war propaganda. It pursues two goals: to deconstruct the conventions of the realist style and reveal the artifice behind its supposed immediacy and claim to provide “evidence” of what happened; and to tell a story from a rational, “objectified” point of view. It therefore takes on the appearance of an epistemological tool informed by scientific rationality. In this paper I first describe the characteristics of the realist style in documentary, which was hegemonic until the end of the twentieth century. I then develop the concept of the objectifying documentary and describe its visual and narrative strategies. My methodology is that of aesthetic analysis, as proposed by Corner (2003). I illustrate the concept of the objectifying documentary through the case study of a realist-style news report on the killing of Muhammad Al-Durrah in 2000, which has since been objectified by the documentary Das Kind, der Tod und die Wahrheit (2009). In the last section I analyse one of the most powerful visual strategies for constructing documentary objectivity, namely, the manipulation of temporality. In the conclusions I reflect on the presumed rationality and scientific nature of objectifying documentaries and their epistemic ideology

Keywords

Objectifying documentary, objectivity, documentary realism, temporality of the image, image manipulation, Al-Durrah affair

References

Arnheim, R. (2002). Arte y percepción visual. Psicología del ojo creador. Madrid: Alianza.

Benjamin, W. (1976). Discursos interrumpidos I. Madrid: Taurus.

Bruzzi, S. (2000). New documentary. London: Routledge.

Carroll, N. (1996). From Real to Reel: Entangled in Non fiction Film. In N. Carroll (Ed.), Theorizing the Moving Image (pp. 224-252). Cambridge: Cambridge University.

Catalá, J.M. (2005). Film-ensayo y vanguardia. In C. Torreiro & J. Cerdán (Eds.). Documental y vanguardia (pp. 109–158). Madrid: Cátedra.

Cerdán, J.F. (2009). El documental en el laberinto de la postmodernidad: una película que explica. In D. Aranda, M. Esquirol & J. Sánchez-Navarro (Eds.). Puntos de vista: una Mirada poliédrica a la historia del cine. Barcelona: UOC.

Corner, J. (2003). Television, documentary and the category of aesthetic. Screen 44(1), 92–100.

García, A. (2006). El film de montaje. Una propuesta tipológica. Secuencias. Revista de historia del cine 23, 67–83.

Gombrich, E. H. (1977). Art and illusion: a study in the psychology of pictorial representation. London: Phaidon.

Markus, S. (2011). La Parodia en el cine posmoderno. Barcelona: UOC.

Mendoza, C. (2008). La Invención de la verdad: nueve ensayos sobre cine documental. México, D.F.: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

Nichols, B. (1983). The Voice of Documentary. Film Quarterly 36(3), 17–30.

Nichols, B. (1997). La Representación de la realidad: cuestiones y conceptos sobre el documental. Barcelona: Paidós.

Nichols, B. (1994). The Trial and Tribulations of Rodney King. In B. Nichols, Blurred boundaries: Questions of meaning in contemporary culture. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Payne, K. (2005). The Media as an Instrument of War. Parameters, Spring 2005, 81–93.

Plantinga, C.R. (1997). Rhetoric and Representation in Non-Fiction Film. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Plantinga, C.R. (2005). What a Documentary Is, After All. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 63(2), 105–117.

Scholl, B.J. & Tremoulet, P.D. (2000). Perceptual causality and animacy. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 4(8), 299-309.

Snyder-Young, D. (2010). Beyond “an Aesthetic of Objectivity”: Performance Ethnography, Performance Texts and Theatricality. Qualitative Inquiry 16(10), 883-893.

Rabinowitz, P. (1993). Wreckage upon Wreckage: History, Documentary and the Ruins of Memory. History and Theory 32(2), 119–137.

Torregrosa, M. (2008). La naturaleza del cine de no ficción: Carl. R. Plantinga y la herencia pragmatista del signo. Zer 13(24), 303–315.

Tri Minh-Ha, T. (1991). When the moon waxes red: representation, gender, and cultural politics. London: Routledge.

Vighi, F. (2002). Beyond objectivity: The utopian in Pasolini’s documentaries. Textual Practice 16(3), 491-510.

Visch, V.T. & Tan, E.S.H. (2009). Categorizing moving objects into film genres: the effect of animacy attribution, emotional response, and the deviation from non-fiction. Cognition110 (2), 265–272.

Weinrichter, A. (2005). Jugando en los archivos de lo real. Apropiación y remontaje en el cine de no ficción. In C. Torreiro & J. Cerdán (Eds.), Documental y vanguardia (pp. 57 ff.). Madrid: Cátedra.

Williams, L. (1993). Mirrors without Memories: Truth, History, and the New Documentary. Film Quarterly 46(3), 9-21.

References on the Al-Durrah case Auerbach, Y. & Lowenstein, H. (2011). The Role of National Narratives in Reconciliation: The Case of Mohammad al-Dura. The International Journal of Press/Politics April 16, 210-233.

Fallows, J. (2003). Who Shot Mohammed al-Dura?. The Atlantic Monthly, June. Landes, Richard: http://www.theaugeanstables.com/al-durah-affair-the-dossier/courtsdecision-in-the-karsenty-case/

Muhammad al-Durrah incident (2014, May 23). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 11:58, September 25, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php ?title=Muhammad_al-Durrah_incident&oldid=609863558

Schapira E. & Hafner G.M. (2011). Das Kind, Der Tod und die Wahrheit.

Metrics

Details

Issue

Vol 28 No 4 (2015)

Section

Articles

RIGHTS TRANSFER

By submitting the article for evaluation and subsequent publication in Communication & Society, the AUTHOR exclusively assigns the rights of public communication, reproduction, distribution and sale for commercial exploitation to the University of Navarra through its Publications Service, for the maximum legal term in force -the entire life of the author and seventy years after his death or declaration of death-, in any country, and in any of the current and future edition modalities, both in print and electronic versions.

In the event that the article is not accepted for publication , this transfer of rights lapses with the communication of the refusal to the AUTHOR.

The AUTHOR affirms that the article is unpublished, that it has not been sent simultaneously to another publication medium and that the rights have not been transferred exclusively previously. He is responsible to the University of Navarra through its Publications Service for the authorship and originality of his work, as well as for all pecuniary charges that may arise for the University of Navarra through its Publications Service, in favor of third parties due to actions, claims or conflicts arising from the breach of obligations by the AUTHOR.

Article Sidebar

Main Article Content