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