Archive for June 2011

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[ecrea] Looking for Reality – Looking at Reality. Symposium at Copenhagen University, Oct 5th 2011.

Mon Jun 27 13:09:27 GMT 2011



This upcoming symposium at Copenhagen University may be of interest:

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********Looking******* for Reality – Looking at Reality*

////////Approaches/////// to contemporary documentary/

Symposium 5th October 2011

Film & Media Studies Section, Copenhagen University

Organised by Inge Ejbye Sørensen & Anne Jerslev

*THE SYMPOSIUM *

In the winter of 2008 the Danish film journal /Kosmorama// published/ a volume about documentary films – ”Between fact and fiction”, addressing recent years continuous blurring of boundaries between the classical notions of ’fact’ and ’fiction’. Paul Ward tentatively designated documentary a /hybrid /format and argued that the term was no longer carrying the explanatory force it used to have. Documentary is more a response than a genre, a reaction on behalf of the audience who recognizes a certain relation between the film and reality, he argued.

Since 2008, the interest in documentary films has not deteriorated, on the contrary. And neither has the confidence in documentary values and the genre’s unique ability to confront (us with) reality. However, the debates about contemporary documentary – documentary strategies, documentary responses, documentary aesthetics, have not been less challenging and not fewer. Even though there has been a move away from using ‘fact’ and ‘fiction’ as guiding parameters for understanding – and evaluating - documentary strategies such as staging and reenactment, the intense discussion about for example Erroll Morris’ /Standard Operating Procedure/ and Janus Metz’ restaging of an episode in / Armadillo/ shows that documentary is no less contested as a genre today and the question of boundaries and ethical choices still surfaces. But we are also reminded that this has been the case for several decades.

In this free symposium seminar we want to take issue with documentary discussions once more. We will look at particular documentary strategies such as reenactments and restagings and address some of the many ethical questions that keep being discussed, whenever, it seems, reality has been manipulated in making a documentary – one way or the other. The seminar will consist of both scholarly presentations and /q&a’s/ with documentary filmmakers.

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********PROGRAMME********

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*Morning Sessions: Looking at Reality *

////////Changing/////// reality: Documentary, politics & society /

09:15 – 09:30: Anne Jerslev: Introduction to symposium

09:30 – 10:30: Øyvind Vågnes, University of Bergen: Fantasmatic documentarism? Reconsidering /Standard Operating Procedure/

10:30 – 10:45:                     Coffee

10:45 -11:15 Mette Mortensen, University of Copenhagen: Documenting conflicts and their political realities

11:15 – 12:15 Ib Bondebjerg, University of Copenhagen in conversation with film director Janus Metz (NB to be confirmed)

12:15-13:15 Lunch

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********Afternoon******* Sessions: Looking for Reality *

////////Creating/////// Reality in documentary film - Genre, aesthetics and narrative strategies in documentary today /

13:15 – 14:15 Paul Ward, Arts University College at Bournemouth: Documentary performance, (p)re-enactment and hybridity.

14:15 – 14:45 Arild Fetveit, University of Copenhagen: Theorizing The Border Zone Between Documentary and Fiction.

14:45 – 15:00                      Coffee

15:00 – 16:00 Anne Jerslev, University of Copenhagen in conversation with film director James Marsh (NB to be confirmed)


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