Digital video and Alexandre Astruc's caméra-stylo: the new avant-garde in documentary realized?

Abstract

In 1948 the French film maker and critic Alexandre Astruc published an essay where he, inspired by the promises of new cinema technology (16mm,) prophesied a breakthrough in patterns of production and distribution of the moving picture. In the end Astruc envisaged the birth of a new cinema aesthetics drawing on the experiences of the avantgarde. This article poses the question of whether the breakthrough of digital production and distribution of documentary films has brought us closer to Astruc's vision in the field of documentary film. The article poses the question: Does expanded access to digital production means and distribution channels of audiovisual media also imply an enhancement of the democratic potential of these media, traditionally dominated by producers with access to capital? Alternatively, will this development influence and change the dominating media structure, or will it fall victim to a fragmentization into several non-connected “partial public spaces”? These questions are discussed using an example of how our concept of the documentary is challenged by a video blog from an octogenarian using the pseudonym “Geriatric 1927” on YouTube.