The sincerest form of docudrama: re-framing the animated documentary

Abstract

Scholarly animated documentaries are usually classified as factual films and fitted into one of Bill Nichols' documentary modes. However, the sole stance that these films are documentaries is not enough for the viewer to accept them as such. As proved by the existence itself of mockumentary, in order to be perceived as a documentary, a film needs to present a specific set of aesthetics conventionally accepted as veridictive marks, which are absent or extremely limited in animated documentaries. On the contrary, such films not only adopt mainly the grammar and aesthetics of fiction film-making, but also visually lack an indexical link to reality. In light of the foregoing and of the fact that these films use fabricated actors to re-enact and dramatize factual-based stories, would it not be more appropriate to allocate the animated documentary in the docufiction territory? In particular, having considered the reasons why animation is used and that its presence alone is a flagrant declaration of constructedness, this article proposes to redefine animated documentary as the sincerest form of docudrama.