Vreni Hockenjos, 25 Feb 2011

Media Literacy I:
Socially Committed Documentary Films in Close-Up
The lecture aims at providing students with some basic analytical tools in order to
enable a more critical understanding of the means with which documentary films
convey their content. Put differently, the aim is to draw attention to the fact that
documentary films offer no “objective” window to the world but are narrative
constructs with a specific set of aesthetic rules. So focus is directed towards the
strategies used in a film: how are we as spectators persuaded by an argument offered
in a film and, how are we made to care about a certain issue?

Documentary films are powerful means to cast light on forgotten conflicts or human
rights violations taking place worldwide. To be able to critically reflect the “medium
of the message” is particularly important when it comes to socially committed
documentary films such as those screened in the “Cinema and Human Rights” series.
The ethical aspect is all the more pivotal precisely because these films so openly fight
for a good cause. In doing so, the result is that they often hide or at least downplay
their constructedness in favor of the content. But who is filming who? Through what
perspective is a documentary film being narrated? What is the relation between the
filmmaker and the people portrayed in the film? But also: why do we want to watch
these films? What pleasure do we get out of it? In dwelling on these questions, what
becomes visible are the inherent pitfalls of voyeurism and the notion of exhibiting an
exotic “other” when filming vulnerable and marginalized groups. Rather than helping
these people or, if you will, empowering them, there is always a risk to further exploit
them when filming them (Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others). As such, the lecture
seeks to close in on the delicate balancing act that socially committed documentaries
films need to master between the desire to raise awareness of an injustice on the one
hand and the necessity to entertain people in order to sell a film on the other.

What are Documentary Films?

Fiction vs. Documentary/ The Truth Claim of Documentaries
Documentary Modes of Representation (Nichols)
 Expository
 Observational
 Interactive
 Reflexive
Representing the Other (vulnerable groups): between ethics and aesthetics
Between powerful political tool and “feelgood movies”