Remediations of Nonfiction: Animation, Interactivity, and Documentary From Africa

Abstract

This article explores re-mediations of nonfiction through an examination of so-called animated documentary and interactive documentary. By focusing on case studies from Africa, the article proposes that while these processes and methods are not conventionally aligned with documentary practice in a customary sense, they offer aesthetic strategies that allow artists and filmmakers to consider their position reflexively as authors, curators, and participants in the narratives that they seek out to explore. Their films exist on the periphery of typical classifications of this genre, and this peripheral status allows them degrees of freedom that would otherwise not be possible with conventional methods. In animation, for example, they are able to draw on specific aesthetic motifs or culturally located iconography that resonates with local audiences. Through interactivity they are able to tap into the participatory cultures and user-generated content to encourage polyvocality as a means to examine “truth” and in turn to question the authority of the author.