[ecrea] Looking for Reality - Looking at Reality

Looking for Reality - Looking at Reality

Practical and theoretical approaches to contemporary documentary

Symposium, Wednesday October 5, 2011
Room: 21.0.19
Organised by Inge Ejbye S=F8rensen&  Anne Jerslev, Film&  Media Studies Sec=
tion, Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, University of Copen=
hagen


THE SYMPOSIUM=09
In the winter of 2008 the Danish film journal Kosmorama published a volume =
about documentary films  =96 =94Between fact and fiction=94, addressing rec=
ent years continuous blurring of boundaries between the classical notions o=
f =92fact=92 and =92fiction=92. Paul Ward tentatively designated documentar=
y a hybrid format and argued that the term was no longer carrying the expla=
natory 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 betw=
een the film and reality, he argued.=20

Since 2008, the interest in documentary films has not deteriorated, on the =
contrary. And neither has the confidence in documentary values and the genr=
e=92s unique ability to confront (us with) reality. However, the debates ab=
out contemporary documentary =96 documentary strategies, documentary respon=
ses and documentary aesthetics - have not been less challenging and not few=
er. Even though there has been a move away from using =91fact=92 and =91fic=
tion=92 as guiding parameters for understanding =96 and evaluating - docume=
ntary strategies such as staging and reenactment, the intense discussion ab=
out for example Erroll Morris=92 Standard Operating Procedure and Christoff=
er Guldbrandsen=92s Den Hemmelige Krig (The Secret War) shows that document=
ary is no less contested as a genre today and the question of boundaries an=
d ethical choices still surfaces. But we are also reminded that this has be=
en the case for several decades.

In this free seminar we want to take issue with documentary discussions onc=
e more. We will look at particular documentary strategies such as reenactme=
nts and restagings and address some of the many ethical questions that keep=
 being discussed, whenever reality has been manipulated in making a documen=
tary =96 one way or the other. The seminar will consist of both scholarly p=
resentations and a q&a=92s with documentary filmmaker Christoffer Guldbrand=
sen.

=20
PROGRAMME

Morning Sessions: Looking for Reality =96 The world outside
Changing reality: Documentary, politics&  society =20


Chair: Anne Jerslev
09:15 =96 09:30	Anne Jerslev: Introduction to symposium=20

09:30 =96 10:30	=D8yvind V=E5gnes, University of Bergen: Fantasmatic docume=
ntarism? Reconsidering Standard Operating Procedure.

10:30 =96 10:45	Coffee break

10:45 -11:30	Mette Mortensen, University of Copenhagen: The Subjective Turn=
 in Contemporary Representations of War.

11:30 =96 12:30	Ib Bondebjerg, University of Copenhagen in conversation wit=
h Danish feature documentary maker Christoffer Guldbrandsen.=20

12:30-13:15		Lunch


Afternoon Sessions: Looking for Reality - The world inside
Creating reality in documentary film - Genre, aesthetics and narrative stra=
tegies in documentary today=20

Chair: Inge Ejbye S=F8rensen
13:15 =96 14:15	Paul Ward, Arts University College at Bournemouth: Performa=
nce in hybrid documentary forms: audience engagement, prior knowledge and t=
he 'ethical charge'.

14:15 =96 15:00	Arild Fetveit, University of Copenhagen: Theorizing the bor=
der zone between documentary and fiction.

15:00 =96 15:15	Coffee break=20

15:15 =96 16:00	Anne Jerslev, University of Copenhagen: History and reenact=
ment in James Marsh=92s documentaries Wisconsin Death Trip (1999) and Man o=
n Wire (2008).





For further info please contact (inges /at/ hum.ku.dk)



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