Documentary Project Research Articles

There’s more to life than the monomyth: multiperspectival approaches to teaching narrative and story in university film and media departments

ABSTRACT This article critiques the ongoing dominance of the Hollywood monomyth in the film and television industry, at least in the UK if not more widely. It considers how this is impacting on the teaching of narrative and story in university film and media departments as they move towards stronger collaborations with industry. It argues for the importance of two-way dialogue to help equip students and their future employers for a world facing complex global challenges. Drawing on the author’s extensive experience in teaching and practice-led research, it advocates for a creative problem-solving approach which decentres conflict-driven models of narrative development, such as the Hero’s Journey, placing them alongside alternative models which engage with the relationship between conflict and harmony in a variety of different ways. Considering narrative structures such as Kishōtenketsu, indigenous storytelling methods and the author’s own work with the Polyphonic Documentary project, the need for a genuinely inclusive and expansive approach is brought to the fore. A mixed economy is considered to be essential, with experimental and traditional approaches preparing students for current industry demands whilst also encouraging them to shape future storytelling landscapes. The argument is made that this is crucial to foster a nuanced understanding of narrative and story that can respond creatively and effectively to the demands of a rapidly changing world.

Television documentaries of the People's Republic of China (using the example of CCTV)

Television documentaries in China, especially on the largest national television channel China Central Television (CCTV), is a unique object of research reflecting a wide range of socio-cultural, political and technological aspects of the development of Chinese society. CCTV is not only an important information and entertainment source, but also a powerful tool for influencing public opinion, forming national identity and promoting public policy. The analysis of the history of the development of television documentaries in China reflects the influence of political events and socio-cultural changes on its evolution. Starting from the early stages of the development of Chinese television, when it served as a tool of state propaganda, and up to the present, when new topics and genres appeared, the study will help to understand how television documentaries have become an important element of cultural heritage and a means of public communication. The organizational structure of CCTV, as a key player in the Chinese media space, plays a significant role in shaping content and influencing public opinion. The method or methodology of the study. The methodology of this study is devoted to a comprehensive analysis of television documentaries in China with an in-depth examination of the example of China Central Television (CCTV). This methodology is based on a comprehensive study of historical, cultural, political and technological aspects of the development of television documentaries in China. The study of television documentaries in China, with a focus on the example of China Central Television (CCTV), provides a significant contribution to understanding the diverse aspects of the formation and impact of this media format in the context of Chinese culture and society. The scientific novelty of this study is manifested in several key aspects. Firstly, an extensive historical analysis reveals the evolution of television documentaries in China over various periods, emphasizing the influence of political changes and socio-cultural factors on its development. Secondly, the structural analysis of CCTV reveals the organizational mechanisms that form documentary projects. Considering the interaction between the structure of the channel and the content of programs makes it possible to understand what factors influence the formation and implementation of documentary initiatives, as well as how these factors are related to public policy. The third important achievement is the thematic analysis, which highlights the main themes and directions of documentary on CCTV.

NEXT EDITION AND SCOPIO & CONTRAST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

NEXT EDITION AND SCOPIO & CONTRAST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

Opele Revisited: How Oceanic Blackness Impacts Student Belonging and Success

The Opele Report of 1992 provided a window into the concerns surrounding educational opportunities and quality of education for underrepresented Black students at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (UHM) (Takara, 1992, p. 4). By providing a comprehensive analysis, the “Opele Report” suggested multiple ways to improve Black student and faculty retention, recruitment, and well-being. Thirty years later, what has changed? How has Black student life and well-being improved, and how supported do they feel? How do they envision their belonging in an oceanic educational space where they are traditionally underrepresented? How might their experiences provide a space to rethink Blackness in oceanic settings? This article revisits the “Opele Report” by providing a window into the contemporary experiences of the 1.8% Black student population on campus by highlighting how they cultivate belonging while navigating their intersectional identities on the University of Hawaʻi at Mānoa campus. I focus on six former and current students affiliated with the Black Student Association as they engage in storytelling surrounding Blackness and belonging on campus and in Hawaiʻi as an expansion of a previous photo voice project and current documentary project. Each student’s response to a series of prompts reveals how Black hypervisibility and invisibility impact their on-campus experiences with belonging while gesturing to how it helps them expand conceptions of Blackness in an oceanic setting. Their dialogue highlights the need to honestly address diversity, inclusion, equity, and justice work on university campuses, including those beyond the continental United States. From experiencing tokenism from colleagues and throughout campus to racism from peers, these students’ experiences highlight the intricacies of finding belonging in the face of anti-Blackness that remains pervasive on campus and statewide.

"Valorar el trabajo de farmworkers": A thematic analysis of input from farmworkers, advocates, and students in a community documentary project about the future of farm work.

Farm work is one of the nation's most hazardous occupations, and migrant and seasonal farmworkers face significant health inequities. Awareness and understanding of the needs of this population are crucial in assuring they receive appropriate support. Documentary programs can raise awareness of community member views to better inform services and advocacy efforts. Visions for the future of farm work were collected from farmworkers and persons supporting them through a community-based, participatory documentary project led by Student Action with Farmworkers (SAF) from 2021 to 2022. Seventy-nine submissions from participants in North and South Carolina, including text responses and file uploads, were collected and thematically analyzed. Five themes were identified: (1) employment benefits and conditions, (2) living conditions, (3) health access and quality, (4) dignity and visibility of farm work, and (5) policy change for a better future. The visions for the future of farm work expressed by these agricultural workers, advocates, and students raise important implications for agricultural communities, public health practitioners, researchers, funders, and policymakers. Application of these findings in the development and delivery of public health services for farmworkers has the potential to positively impact the morbidity and mortality rates of this at-risk population.

Habits of Belonging in and through Boxing

This paper explores how habit and belonging are interconnected in boxing. Despite being an exclusionary sport – one that is steeped in myopic traditions and exploitation – boxing practices nevertheless have the potential to empower individuals through rituals and habits that lead to self-enquiry, community building and positive change. Habit formation is sought through repetitive patterns in boxing – arriving at the gym, wrapping hands, putting on gloves, performing drills, engaging in pad work, shadowboxing and sparring. These patterns form behaviours that inform – and are informed by – ritualistic practices capable of connecting participants to a rich (and complex) understanding of what it means to be a boxer and part of a boxing community. I explore the deeply meaningful connections to self and to others in boxing, wherein transformative relationships are formed through crucial links between habit and identity formation. Through the lens of two case studies – Trans Boxing (a co-authored art project based in New York and Los Angles) and ‘Women’s Boxing Wales: Past, Present and Future’ (a community-orientated documentary project capturing female contributions to Welsh Boxing) – I argue that habit in boxing manifests experiences of transformation and belonging. For participants of Trans Boxing, the boxing spaces and practices they embody allow them to ‘reject the myth of gender which polices self-expression [and] feel liberated’ albeit momentarily ‘in the role of the boxer’ (Hanson and Easterling). For individuals and communities contributing to Women’s Boxing Wales, a particular heritage is formed and better understood, and the cultural identity of the ‘Welsh boxer’ is (re)negotiated.

The politics of video intimacy: Julie Gustafson’s feminist documentary practice

ABSTRACT This article historicizes and theorizes the feminist documentary practice of Julie Gustafson, focusing on The Politics of Intimacy: Ten Women Talk About Orgasm and Sexuality (US, 1973) and Desire (US, 2005). Employing archival research and original interviews with Gustafson, it argues that both works interrogate intimacy’s use value for navigating new modes of documentary witnessing afforded by video. It begins by contextualizing The Politics of Intimacy’s modes of ‘intimate witnessing’ in relation to 1970s guerrilla TV movements, feminist documentary filmmaking, and women’s video art, as well as in terms of Gustafson’s involvement in the Manhattan-based Global Village Video Resource Center. It then analyzes how The Politics of Intimacy utilizes a ‘voice-centered’ feminist documentary method, which foregrounds video’s intimate appeals and polyvocal modes of address to create a multilayered account of women’s sexual experiences. Finally, the article contends that The Politics of Intimacy’s voice-centered approach crucially informs the interplay of generational voices in Desire, which documents Gustafson’s long-term collaboration with the Teenage Girls’ Documentary Project. Gustafson’s documentary practice takes on added complexity in Desire, as it maps emergent solidarities across generations of women video makers to reveal feminist voicing to be a complex, at-times contradictory expression of the self-in-relation.

Adapting Methods of Language Documentation To Multilingual Settings

Abstract Commonly recommended methods for documenting endangered languages are built around the assumption that a given documentary project will focus on a single language rather than a multilingual ecology. This hinders the potential usability of documentary materials for the study of language contact. Research in domains such as ethnography and sociolinguistics has developed conceptual and analytical tools for understanding patterns of multilingual usage, but the insights of such work have yet to be translated into concrete recommendations for enhancements to documentary practice. This paper considers how standard documentary approaches can be adapted to multilingual contexts with respect to activities such as the collection of metadata, the use of ethnographic methods, and the recording and annotation of naturalistic multilingual discourse. A particular focus of the discussion are ways in which documentary projects can create better records of multilingual practices even if these are not the focus of the work.

Double Time Pictures of the Arizona State Prison at Florence

This visual essay is drawn from Double Time, one of a series of three documentary projects on the theme of what might come after a prison is shuttered. Made partly in dialog with ongoing abolitionist organizing by Mass Liberation in South Phoenix, Double Time focuses on Arizona’s origins as a state, at the intersection of the Civil War and the echoes of the Haitian Revolution, as the War’s twin capacities of war-making and image-making pushed the US’ imperial expansion westward.

Shama, an insider looking in: a community-centred collaborative documentary production

ABSTRACT In this article, we analyse and reflect on the complex interweaving of documentary strategies and the five levels of performance that we designed in a small-scale community-centred collaborative documentary project entitled Shama. Shama Ethnic Women’s Trust is one of the first NGOs in New Zealand established and run by ethnic migrant women for ethnic women and their families. Applying a filmmaking-as-research methodology, the project’s aim was to respond to the scarcity of screen representation of ethnic NGOs. The purpose was not only to convey information about Shama’s activities and services but also to convey a sense of the internal culture of the NGO and its community spirit. The portrayal of minority groups in community production often leads to an outsider-looking-down approach. We felt that providing an insider view was more important than simply conveying the facts efficiently about the organisation. This goal led us to apply a collaborative documentary practice, avoid an expository style, characterised by a single authoritative voice, and opt for a mix of performative and observational strategies, in which multiple voices and modes of address are featured. By shifting modes of address, we explored the ways in which a short, no-budget documentary could represent the complexity of this NGO.

Engender(ing) immigrant space: A praxis through collaborative storytelling and interactive documentary

Immigrant space – a place of convergence of multiple movements – engenders through rhythms of the everyday and an art of inhabitation of its people. It comprises stories of resilience that must be amplified and celebrated, especially when they are at a threat of erasure on account of systemic and structural violence, and/or a lack of concerted effort to document them. Little Pakistan is one such immigrant space inhabited by Pakistani Americans in Brooklyn, New York City. In this article, I propose a framework titled ‘Engender(ing)’ for a rediscovery of meanings vested in immigrant space, explaining its emergence and expansion across forms, delimitations and associations. The framework is then applied through a confluence of collaborative storytelling and interactive documentary. The outcome, Little Pakistan – Future Histories, is an interactive documentary project presented as a case study, with people – artist, community, publics – assuming the role of ‘innovators of meanings’ to rediscover Little Pakistan as an ‘ensemble of meanings’. I infer that this framework and its praxis offer promise for future collaborative new media documentary practice and research in the context of other immigrant enclaves, neighborhoods and similarly structured spaces.

Telling Chinese stories through first-person participatory documentaries

I have kept a watchful eye on the Looking China project hosted by Academy for International Communication of Chinese Culture (AICCC) for a long time. In the earlier time of 2022, the 11th year of the running of the project, I was honored to participate in “A Tour in Beijing”, a part of the project as an instructor, and thereby offered an opportunity again to study the international communication of Chinese stories. The project this year was carried out in two stages. In its first stage, it produced 3 documentaries on Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics in early 2022 in memory of the successfully held Games. It also completed another 6 documentaries in July 2022 in its second stage. All these 9 documentaries were produced under the cooperation between 9 young foreign directors from different countries and Chinese volunteer producers. Before that, working as the executive director, I had made Childhood in China, a two-part special aired on Discovery Channel in April 2020. It was a globally-broadcast version revised from The Post-00s (It’s Chinese name is Linglinghou, which is a documentary project led by Professor Zhang Tongdao, Director of the Documentary Centre of Beijing Normal University (BNU)), an educational documentary series in China. The special offered a 12 year tracking to a dozen of children shortly after they attended an experimental kindergarten in Beijing in 2006. It particularly captured moments of exploration, anxiety, and joy as they experienced a contrasting education that shaped their distinctive personalities. In the co-producing period with Discovery Channel, I came to realize the very part of transcultural communication and was motivated to act as a guide to the Looking China project. In view of this, the article first analyzes the documentaries in “Looking China: A Tour in Beijing” in 2022 and introduce my co-production experience based on Childhood in China. With a review of typical documentaries at home and abroad, it concludes with a discussion on possible solutions to shoot a documentary applicable for better international communication.

On disobedient daughters of perpetrator fathers: ‘Transfilial’ activisms across the Argentine human rights movement

This piece explores why and how the praxis of disobedience, as articulated by the daughters of the perpetrators of state terrorism during Argentina’s last dictatorship (1976–1983), might be read as an instance of queering memory. The analysis focuses on the trajectories of Liliana Furio (a founder member of the Historias Desobedientes collective) and Mariana Dopazo (ex-daughter of one of the dictatorship’s most infamous perpetrators) to illustrate the differing ways in which the mandate of blood has been challenged through public acts of defiliation. Based on our documentary project material, we consider the ways in which the emergence of these disobedient daughters enacts a collective ‘coming out’ and unprecedented disruption of the normative imaginaries of bloodline ties that have traditionally shaped the local aftermath of violence. We argue that their performance of defiliation puts forward a queer arrangement that unsettles the established landscape of human rights activism in Argentina and beyond.

A dokumentumfilm-tervek piaci követelményeiről és ezek átalakulásáról – első rész

The international market of the documentary projects – the so called “pitching forums” – was formed about 30 years ago at the International Documentary Forum Amsterdam (IDFA) film festival. There the commissioning editors of different documentary TV slots could pre-buy the films at the level of project. Many documentaries could be made thanks to those pre-buys. After a while, many similar financing forums were formed in different countries, connected to different festivals, and they continue to play an important role regarding the documentary productions, although, due to the decreasing number of the documentary TV slots, it is more and more difficult to get financing at such forums. But they started to play an important role in the distribution of the films. Those who are not promoting their film at the level of project, have difficulties in the distribution of the completed film. This study is based on the personal experience of the author, who as film director and producer participated at preparation classes for different pitching forums, so he could observe not only the development of his projects, but also of the projects of the other participants. This study is also about the formal requirements of the documentary film projects presented at such pitching forums.

Współdziałanie i partycypacja w interaktywnych projektach dokumentalnych – na przecięciu teorii i praktyki

In this article I discuss online interactive documentary projects in terms of their participatory possibilities. The interpretative key is provided by the concepts of numerous theorists and practitioners in this area of expression, such as Kate Nash, Sandra Gaudenzi, Jon Dovey and Mirko Tobias Schäfer. I divide the text into three main sections on relevant aspects of the issue: the production process, social practices and ethical issues. The text closes with a postulatory section, focusing on the construction of a 'framing' to safeguard the rights of all those involved in a given participatory project.

Open Documentary Platforms Enabling Forms of Democratization and Community Experience

In recent years, there has been an increase in open documentary projects on the web providing platforms for those affected by social problems to tell their stories. During the COVID-19 lockdowns, they gained significance as collaborative projects responding to pressing questions. They offered virtual spaces for community interaction and the interactive negotiation of meanings and perceptions of reality as face-to-face interactions on the ground became unfeasible. As networks of mutual support in times of uncertainty, they responded to the various needs of many people worldwide and avoided a hierarchical approach in favor of participatory, partly dialogical practices and a polyphonic form of presentation. This makes them compelling examples for discussing the democratic potentials and social-communicative functions of interactivity on such documentary platforms. This contribution analyzes two documentary projects: Corona Haikus (initiated by Sandra Gaudenzi and Sandra Tabares-Duque, 2020), launched as a Facebook group for visual poetry referring to the reality of the lockdowns and documenting the experiences during isolation, and Corona Diaries (initiated by Francesca Panetta et al., 2020), a database for voice recordings. The paper argues that interactivity in the two examples, first of all, fosters democratic processes on the level of production and decision-making processes as well as on the level of meaning construction; further – as an adjacent claim – the contribution suggests that the projects as complex assemblages allowed for the experience of virtual communities. By combining material and praxeological analyses and drawing on approaches from political theory, philosophy, and social sciences in addition to the media studies-oriented analyses, the paper identifies the transformative dimension of collaborative interactive documentaries, especially in times of crisis. Despite different medial approaches with additional advantages – visual poetry that encourages reflection and intimate voice recordings that enable effectively attentive listening –both platforms function as a medial in-between that enables collective identification and solidarity forms. The difference between Corona Haikus and Corona Diaries is: that Corona Haikus uses the democratic potentials of the interactive communication network for collective negotiations of meanings, dialogue, and co-creation, while Corona Diaries focuses more on low participation thresholds for a – in terms of content – highly open space, which in turn does not allow for interactions among the participants. What the projects have in common is that the active participation in the open space without the classical hierarchies between professional media makers and subjects, the collective narrative processes, and the sharing of emotions can lead to the feeling of being part of a developing community, which in turn can help individual participants to cope with their experiences. Additionally, the nonlinear, polyphonic platforms open up new perspectives and relations not seen before. Another result of the paper is that future research should differentiate more nuancedly between forms of participation rather than arguing based on an artificial distinction between interactivity and participation.

Interactive Documentary

This article responds to the 4th Interactive Film and Media International Conference (IFM 2022) themes of eco-media, epistemologies and listening by focusing on the role that interactive documentary can play in addressing the existential and pressing issue of climate change. It re-visits the article Interactive Documentary: setting the field which I co-authored with Sandra Gaudenzi in 2012 in light of this now central concern and asks how the affordances of interactive documentary can be used to help re-frame our engagement with the human and the non-human. It places metamodern and polyphonic thinking at the centre of this discussion, as two key concepts that I consider to be particularly helpful when thinking about the contribution that interactive documentary can make to wider debates about eco-media. The paper argues that metamodernism and polyphony can contribute to the development of transformative approaches to interactive documentary and indeed to interactive narrative more generally. This is important as it offers us a set of cognitive tools through which to think about how to navigate the complexities and uncertainties of our collective futures which climate change is undoubtedly bringing. The paper engages with the theoretical arguments first and then applies these to a discussion of my work as a co-convenor of the Polyphonic Documentary project before bringing these thoughts together as tentative conclusions and unresolved issues.

Introduction to Confronting Teacher Preparation Epistemicide: Art, Poetry, and Teacher Resistance

In this special issue, we present different perspectives from a documentary project on curricular epistemicide. We view curriculum epistemicide —the annihilation of curriculum—as an embodied process. It limits ways of knowing, questioning, and envisioning the world, and it constricts multiplicity and erases identity and culture. Authors within this volume responded to two requests: 1) they examined some form of epistemicide; and 2) they did not reinforce current systems of power and inequity. Throughout the issue, poetry and photography weave through theoretical papers and empirical studies. A range of methodologies are considered within the articles.

From film to Web 2.0: transmedia as a distribution model for political documentary

ABSTRACT This research is a creative exploration of transmedia’s ability to offer up a model of distribution and audience engagement for political documentary. Transmedia, as is well known, is a fluid concept. It is not restricted to the activities of the entertainment industry and its principles also reverberate in the practice of political and activist documentary projects. This practice-led research draws on data derived from the production and circulation of Obrero, an independent transmedia documentary. The project explores the conditions and context of the Filipino rebuild workers who migrated to Christchurch, New Zealand after the earthquake in 2011. Obrero began as a film festival documentary that co-exists with two other new media iterations, each reaching its respective target audience: a web documentary, and a Facebook-native documentary. This study argues that relocating the documentary across new media spaces not only expands the narrative but also extends the fieldwork and investigation, forms like-minded publics, and affords the creation of an organised hub of information for researchers, academics and the general public. Treating documentary as research can represent a novel pathway to knowledge generation and the present case study, overall, provides an innovative model for future scholarship.

The Persistence of the Documentary Photobook in the Age of the Web

Several artists who take into consideration the existence of the Internet in their process of documenting the world remain faithful to the photography book. They find in the codex an experience that a screen remains incapable of providing. The adoption of the book by some documentarist artists engages appropriation practices from an ancient documentary project. War Primer 2 by Broomberg & Chanarin and Less Américains by Mishka Henner reproduce pre-existing books, respectively The ABC of War by Bertolt Brecht and The Americans by Robert Frank. The renewed interest of artists and photographers in books can be explained by a logic of comparison between the two media: the emergence of the web, with its formats and specificities, makes it possible to better appreciate, by analogy and distinction, what characterizes books and the web, and what makes their respective languages.
 However, rather than thinking of the modes of publication as alternatives, some of the artists merge their logic by resorting to online self-publishing platforms that allow the self-production and self-distribution of books. The artist Mishka Henner stands out in particular for his systematic production of books on self-publishing sites.
 
 Article received: March 31, 2022; Article accepted: June 21, 2022; Published online: September 15, 2022. Original scholarly paper