Nostalgic Dimensions of Autobiographical Canonization Generational Canon in Slovak Collective (Self)Portraits: +−90 and Wave vs. Shore

Abstract

The history of cinema, built on periodization and the canonization of works, tends to favour the interpretation of artistic development as a causal chain in which one stage builds upon the other. Locating a specific author and work within this chain legitimizes their significance in the creation of the canon, just as the canon justifies the importance of a singular author and work. My study focuses on how generational (self)identification through autobiographical documentary filmmaking can contribute to the construction of an authorial canon and how these self-portrayal and memory practices use two different strategies of nostalgia. Through the analysis of two Slovak collective (self)portraits in documentary form, +−90 (Marek Kuboš, 2022) and wave vs. shore (vlna vs. breh, Martin Štrba, 2012), I explore how authors can tell their own stories within a broader framework where personal history intersects with cultural history and how, in the process of writing the history of cinema and photography through the medium of film, it defines the generational affinity of creators.