Abstract
This article applies Ettinger’s (2001) notion of the matrixial to the documentary practice of Kim Longinotto.  It considers this in relation to what I term the matrixial screen encounter, a model that expands the individualistic framing of the unitary auteur and acts as a counter to the notion of the impartial observer within the context of observational documentary.  It applies this model to a scene from Longinotto and Mir-Hosseini’s 1998 documentary, Divorce Iranian Style and demonstrates how the matrixial screen encounter offers a way of mapping and considering the inter-connected, inter-subjective gazes, or layers of power within the scene, which are predominantly female and feminist.  It concludes that the matrixial screen encounter provides a way of re-thinking the unitary, authoritative gaze of the auteur and the supposed impartiality of the camera-as-observer – reinforced by the term observational documentary - where the screen itself becomes a ‘locus of mediation’ at which various matrixes, gazes or layers of power, meet.
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