Documentary Film Rhetoric: Saving Face and the Public Sphere

The purpose of the current study is to analyze how gender is represented in the documentary Saving Face through the use of different signs. The study of the portrayal of gender in Pakistani documentary has been conducted through the analysis of signs. For this purpose, 8 visuals from Saving Face were analyzed using elements of the stills such as camera angle, character's body language, physical appearance, gestures, dressing, background objects or props and colors. Employing the theoretical framework of Peirce's theory of signs on documentary, various types of signs such as iconic, indexical and symbolic signs representing gender and sketching out distinct aspects of gender roles in Pakistan, were unearthed. Two major findings were deduced: (1) laid in the domestic and public sphere, Pakistan men are more celebrated and respected than women; and (2) the existing gender roles have observed a breach of unconventionality from the stereotypical roles.

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The study explores the causes of honour-based crimes through the narratives of victims, aggressors and bystanders, which were unfolded in documentary films: A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness (2015) and Saving Face (2012). Selected narratives are interpreted by taking the sociocultural perspectives that draw on the cultural manifestation of honour crimes. The study shows that the ‘ideology of honour’ is one of the major causes of honour- crimes in Pakistan. Unlike Western discourses, which empower a woman institutionally to resist honour crimes, Pakistani women are either hushed or forced to compromise despite the presence of law to punish the aggressors. The study recommends that state and nonstate institutions play an effective role through the local councils of Pakistan in dealing with honour crimes and rehabilitation of victims through the provision of remunerative work.

이 글은 현재의 전지구적 가부장체제가 만들어 내는 로컬들의 상황과 그 상황을 재현하는 정치적 서사들인 다큐멘터리들을 통해 전지구적 가부장체제의 면모를 살피고자 한다. 지구적 가부장체제 하에서 로컬 여성들이 신체적 정신적 위험과 위협을 당하면서 그에 맞서게 되는 상황을 살핀다. 네 편의 다큐멘터리 강물 속의 여자, 얼굴을 살리며, 구글베이비, 그리고 탐욕의 제국에 드러난 파키스탄, 인도, 한국의 가족과 친지 그리고 기업이 여성에게 가하는 명예살인, 염산테러, 대리모노동, 전자산업노동의 죽음과 질병을 살피면서 가부장적 성체계의 면모를 드러내고자 한다. 이러한 위험과 위협을 가능하게 하는 장치로서 가부장적 가족, 신체, 시장을 성장치로 보고 이 장치들의 작동을 살핀다. 그리고 그에 대한 여성들의 행위자성을 드러내고자 한다. 여성들을 피해자로만 자리매김하지 않고 행위자로 자리매김하면서 다큐 감독들의 재현행위의 반가부장체제적 정치성을 살핀다. 로컬의 여성들과 감독들의 저항성에서 전지구적 가부장체제에 맞서는 글로컬 액티비즘의 대항과 대안의 가능성을 찾아보고자 한다.

:This article argues that contemporary independent documentary filmmaking in China has been used as a tool by Chinese citizens to intervene in the public sphere and to provoke social change. I therefore propose to look at the phenomenon of Chinese video activism under the umbrella of alternative media. In particular, I take into consideration the “rhizomatic” media approach, which focuses on the interaction of alternative media with authority, the market and civil society. The case studies I present consist of several documentary projects completed between 2004 and 2010 that opened up spaces of dialogue between filmmakers and local authority, mass media and civil society. The paper claims that documentary films have an impact on audiences, whose members are consequently motivated to engage in discussion and action. I argue that activist video-making in China is reshaping the identity of urban citizens: through filmmaking, urban citizens claim their right to access information and demonstrate their will to participate and intervene in social issues.

Framed by the ethical considerations of Martha Nussbaum on `the lives of distant others' and Zygmunt Bauman on `being-for' the Other, this article critically analyses Australian director Denis O'Rourke's `documentary fiction film' The Good Woman of Bangkok, the story of Aoi, a woman from a rural village in Udon in the northeast of Thailand who works in the Bangkok sex trade. The analysis attempts to give specificity and critical precision to what is too often a more intuitive and generalized critique of the contribution of current affairs programmes to the quality of understanding in the public sphere. The article combines textual analysis and social theory — two forms of analysis too often kept apart — to analyse the relationship between the text of the documentary per se and the conceptualization of social reality within that text. I argue that The Good Woman of Bangkok contains two tales or narratives, a simple one with a simple moral, and a more sophisticated, subversive one that is more attuned — albeit imperfectly — to the requirements of a mature public sphere. The more subversive thread undermines the simple tale by disrupting our belief in the overly naïve picture of social reality that the latter depends upon. The article incorporates an argument for more dialogue between social theorists and documentary film makers.

Research Article| January 01 2017 Art-as-Activism and Public Discourse: A Conversation with Diane Bush David LaRocca David LaRocca DAVID LAROCCA, PHD, is a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy at the State University of New York College at Cortland; a visiting scholar in the Department of English at Cornell University; and a lecturer in screen studies in the Department of Cinema, Photography, and Media Arts at Ithaca College. He is the author, most recently, of Emerson’s English Traits and the Natural History of Metaphor, and editor of The Philosophy of War Films and The Philosophy of Documentary Film: Image, Sound, Fiction, Truth. For more information, see www.DavidLaRocca.org. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Afterimage (2017) 44 (4): 20–25. https://doi.org/10.1525/aft.2017.44.4.20 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation David LaRocca; Art-as-Activism and Public Discourse: A Conversation with Diane Bush. Afterimage 1 January 2017; 44 (4): 20–25. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/aft.2017.44.4.20 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentAfterimage Search This content is only available via PDF. © 2017 Afterimage/Visual Studies Workshop, unless otherwise noted. Reprints require written permission and acknowledgement of previous publication in Afterimage.2017 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Documentary films occupy a pivotal position in the formation of public opinion and serve as a productive instrument in the practice of investigative journalism. It is of the utmost importance to gain an understanding of the influence that these films have on public discourse and to address the ethical concerns that arise from this. This will ensure that the quality of this genre is enhanced and that responsible journalism practices are upheld. The objective of this study is to evaluate the influence of documentary films on public opinion, with a particular emphasis on their contribution to investigative journalism. Furthermore, the study aims to examine the ethical considerations about the production of such films and their impact on the capacity of the films to engender social change. A combination of comparative analysis and surveys was employed to elicit insights from professionals engaged in the fields of documentary journalism and filmmaking. These methods permitted an examination of filmmaking techniques, ethical issues and public influence across several case studies. The study demonstrates that documentary films exert a considerable influence on public opinion, promote awareness of pivotal social issues, and reinforce democratic values. The results of the survey indicate that filmmakers rely heavily on research and analysis, followed by on-location filming and the use of hidden cameras. However, it is evident that emotional impact and archival materials also play a significant role in the production process. Documentary films serve as an efficacious medium for investigative journalism, influencing public discourse and contributing to social change. Nevertheless, the ethical creation of such films represents a significant challenge that requires attention to both professional standards and emotional labor. The findings offer invaluable insights for content creators, journalists, and filmmakers, enabling the development of more effective and ethically responsible strategies in their documentary projects. This will ensure a greater impact on public opinion and social awareness.

The major part of this article is taken up with an analysis of the television documentary The Roots of War, which played a pivotal role in the Channel 4 `Bloody Bosnia' season, screened in the summer of 1993. The analysis involves a critique of the programme's mode of argumentation in which a single, ostensibly authoritative account is given of deep-rooted ethnic conflict in the former Yugoslavia while failing to provide adequate substantiation and evidence. This fairly typical `serious' documentary is contrasted unfavourably with an ideal type of critical social theory. The latter is self-reflexive about its modes of reasoning, aware of multiple perspectives and ontological complexity, and scrupulous about its use of evidence and explanatory procedure (past-modern). The article leads up to the detailed critique of The Roots of War through prior reference to recent reflections on the quality of the public sphere and citizens' faculties of reasoning, empathy and moral deliberation in relation to distant and different others. This creates a frame for a brief survey of some generalized critiques of television's overall contribution to the public sphere in late modernity. A case is then made that generalized critiques need to be supplemented by the rigorous critical purchase that social theory can provide in detailed engagements with particular documentary films and current affairs programmes.

Jonathan Kahana, Intelligence Work: The Politics of American Documentary Film, New York, Columbia University Press, 2008; 432pp, paperback £20; hardback £62 Elizabeth Cowie, Recording Reality, Desiring the Real, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 201 1; 296pp, paperback £18.50; hardback £56 Thomas Waugh, The Right To Phy Oneself: Looking Back on Documentary Film, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 201 1; 336pp, paperback £20.50; hardback £61.50 Documentary, once largely neglected in film dieory, has been a subject of escalating interest over the last twenty years. Partly due to documentary's uneven yet persistent resurgence since the late- 1980s, partly the result of intensified interrogations of the status of truth and authenticity in representation, a number of scholars - such as Bill Nichols, Brian Winston, Vivian Sobchack, Michael Renov and Linda Williams, to name a few - have helped recast the ways that documentaries have been analysed and taught. With Intelligence Work and Recording Reality, Desiring the Real, Jonathan Kahana and Elizabeth Cowie, respectively, contribute important historical, political, and psychoanalytic insights to an area of inquiry still testing its parameters. Thomas Waugh's The Right to Play Oneself (on at least one level a tongue-incheek reference, Waugh notes) performs a somewhat different task: 'looking back' while reasserting the value of Waugh's longstanding contributions to the field of political - or what he has called 'committed' leftwing - documentary. Much critical work on documentary - and the above books stand out - has relied on negotiating between established notions of the form as social practice (stemming in particular from the legacies of John Grierson and Paul Rotha) and transformations of the documentary idea as it interacts with its 'publics' and the changing public sphere. Documentary has long produced a kind of imagined space - and 'real' place - for social engagement. It designates more than just a cinematic 'object', as Sobchack suggests: 'along with the obvious nomination of a film genre characterized historically by objective textual features, the term also - and more radically - designates a certain subjective relation to an objective cinematic or televisual text. In other words, documentary is less a thing than an experience'.1 The idea of documentary film as experience - as socially produced and apprehended through cognitive, psychic, and bodily processes - is crucial to the readings found in Kahana's and Cowie 's books. In Waugh's writing we get a profound sense of documentary film viewing as personal experience: a site of tension, bodi empowering and potentially troubling. Kahana's approach to US documentary recognizes the mobile status that the form has long held, travelling between the domains of 'official' and 'unofficial' or 'counterpublic' iterations. Somewhat paradoxically, documentary owes its ongoing relevance to 'its simultaneous appeal to both state and capitalist institutions and their critics'. Drawing on Charles Taylor's concept of a 'social imaginary', Kahana engages documentary as a recognizable yet fluid 'metagenre' that 'helps us envision the collective consequences of our thoughts and actions, no matter how ordinary or idiosyncratic' (pi). The impact of documentary, then, lies in its ability to gesture towards worlds, experiences, emotions and structures of feeling beyond the 'evidence' it depicts. Documentary representation can make visible 'the invisible or phantom realities that shape the experience of the ordinary Americans in whose name power is exercised and contested' (p9). In this sense, documentary doesn't just reflect social consciousness, it helps us imagine ideas and futures beyond its immediate framework and subject matter; it can make palpable - and transform - ideas of citizenship and relations to a national imaginary. Critics such as Waugh, Paula Rabinowitz, and Patricia Zimmermann have been key to outlining documentary's public functions, and Kahana rightfully acknowledges these contributions while laying the stress on a history of political slipperiness and ideological conflict in US documentary. …

Film is an audio-visual medium that can describe and convey messages, criticism, morals, norms, and others. Movies also have many types, one of which is a documentary film. Documentary films are films that retell reality events with more interesting and creative documentation, where this film is considered capable of influencing its audience. The movie that caught the researcher's attention was a documentary entitled Cyber Hell: Exposing an Internet Horror. Where this film is packaged in a storytelling style from the perspective of a journalist who plays a role in exposing sexual crimes that occur on telegram channels. This research focuses on each scene that contains challenges experienced by journalists when conducting investigative reporting. The purpose of this research is to provide knowledge about the real results of analysis through the methods used and describe the challenges experienced by journalists in conducting investigative reporting on cases of sexual exploitation and harassment through telegram channels. The research method used by the author is descriptive qualitative research method and Roland Barthes semiotic analysis technique. The data collection techniques used in this research are observation and documentation techniques. Researchers found that being a journalist is not easy, there are many challenges that must be overcome when carrying out tasks in this profession. The need for awareness of the challenges faced by journalists in today's social sphere is very important to ensure the quality of news published and reduce the risk of hatred, leaking of journalists' personal data, and the mental health of the journalists themselves.

Drawing the Archive in Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home Ann Cvetkovich (bio) Placing Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home alongside other graphic narratives, most notably Art Spiegelman’s Maus (1993) and Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis (2003) , that explore intergenerational trauma and the role of the child as witness, seems both obvious and potentially inappropriate, even presumptuous.1 In writing about the Holocaust and the Islamic Revolution in Iran, respectively, Spiegelman and Satrapi take on histories that have been formative for global politics in the past century. In Fun Home, by contrast, there is no mass genocide or the same obvious connection to political debate, and the single death, that of Bechdel’s father, someone who might be categorized (however problematically) as a pedophile, suicide, or closet homosexual, raises the possibility that there are some lives that are not “grievable,” certainly not in a public context (Butler 2004, 20). But a queer, even perverse, sensibility not unlike Bechdel’s draws me to idiosyncratic or shameful family stories and their incommensurate relation to global politics and historical trauma. I want to risk inappropriate claims for the significance of Bechdel’s story, to read it in the context not just of Maus and Persepolis but also efforts to redefine the connections between memory and history, private experience and public life, and individual loss and collective trauma. Fun Home confirms my commitment (in An Archive of Feelings [2003]) to queer perspectives on trauma that challenge the relation between the catastrophic and the everyday and that make public space for lives whose very ordinariness makes them historically meaningful. And although Fun Home’s critical and popular success obviously provides many entry points for readers (and warrants its sustained attention in this issue of WSQ), Bechdel’s narrative of family life with a father who is attracted to adolescent boys has particular meaning for me because it provides a welcome alternative to public discourses about LGBTQ politics that are increasingly homonormative and dedicated to family values. [End Page 111] I write more as a specialist in queer studies than as one in graphic narrative, but I hope nonetheless to articulate how Bechdel uses this insurgent genre to provide a queer perspective that is missing from public discourse about both historical trauma and sexual politics. The recent success of graphic narrative, a hybrid or mixed-media genre, and also a relatively new and experimental one, within mainstream literary public spheres suggests that providing witness to intimate life puts pressure on standard genres and modes of public discourse. I seek to juxtapose Fun Home with other prominent graphic memoirs such as Maus and Persepolis to show how its queer sensibility extends their treatment of the relation between individual and historical experience, so central to second-generation witness, especially through a more pronounced focus on sexuality. But I also want to situate Fun Home as part of other insurgent genres of queer culture, such as memoir, solo performance, women’s music, and autoethnographic documentary film and video, including the traditions of lesbian feminist culture within which Bechdel’s long-running Dykes to Watch Out For comic strip circulates. Standing at the intersections of both contemporary LGBTQ culture and public discussions of historical trauma, Fun Home dares to claim historical significance and public space not only for a lesbian coming-out story but also for one that is tied to what some might see as shameful sexual histories. Witnessing Sexuality Dori Laub’s claim, in the context of Holocaust testimony, that trauma is an “event without a witness” (in part because the epistemic crisis of trauma is such that even the survivor is not fully present for the event) takes on a different resonance in Bechdel’s story about her father, who was run over by a truck while crossing the highway outside the house he was restoring (Felman and Laub 1991, 80).2 In a literal sense, his death is an event without a witness (other than the truck driver, who thinks that her father might have jumped back into the road); and Bechdel and her mother’s hunch that it is a suicide, or somehow connected to his complex sexual history, is ultimately only speculation. While the moment of...

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