Archive for 2015

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[ecrea] new publication: Soul of the Documentary: Framing, Expression, Ethics

Fri Dec 04 07:39:44 GMT 2015




For those interested in the intersections of theory and practice in the
field of documentary film, I would like to share information about the
recent publication of my book /Soul of the Documentary: Framing,
Expression, Ethics. /

Book description:

In /Soul of the Documentary/, Ilona Hongisto stirs current thinking
about documentary cinema by suggesting that the work of documentary
films is not reducible to representing what already exists. By
close-reading a diverse body of films – from /The Last Bolshevik /to
/Grey Gardens/ – Hongisto shows how documentary cinema intervenes in the
real by framing it and creatively contributes to its perpetual
unfolding. The emphasis on framing brings new urgency to the documentary
tradition and its objectives, and provokes significant novel
possibilities for thinking about the documentary’s ethical and political
potentials in the contemporary world.


Reviews:**

Documentary does not simply document what is; it presses reality to
reveal what is to come. This thrillingly original and well-argued book
brings a shot of energy to studies of documentary cinema, film theory,
and the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze. Ilona Hongisto shows that
documentary cinema is an active space of becoming, whose power lies not
in indexicality but in capture, the selection of certain aspects of the
real to actualize. Her analysis of the aesthetics of the documentary
frame, which captures and expresses according to the distinct operations
of imagination, fabulation, and affection, will inspire scholars and
filmmakers alike.

––Laura U. Marks, School for the Contemporary Arts, Simon Fraser University

With this book, Hongisto breaks new ground. She introduces a fresh
vocabulary to explore our experience of documentary reality as a
becoming, a transit zone between what is and what is not yet. There is a
deep purpose here: to reconsider how we engage with and understand
documentary film, and perhaps cinema itself.

—Bill Nichols, author of /Introduction to Documentary/ and a regular
consultant with filmmakers


The book//is published by Amsterdam University Press:
http://en.aup.nl/books/9789089647559-soul-of-the-documentary.html
An open access version is downloadable from Oapen:
http://oapen.org/search?identifier=579464;keyword=Hongisto


Dr. Ilona Hongisto
http://ilonahongisto.wordpress.com

Academy of Finland Postdoctoral Research Fellow. Department of Media
Studies, University of Turku (Finland)
Honorary Fellow. Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne
(Australia)

Author of /Soul of the Documentary: Framing, Expression, Ethics
<http://oapen.org/search?identifier=579464;keyword=Hongisto>/ (Amsterdam
University Press, open access)

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