Film Restored – lecture “We can’t get no satisfaction: The unease over the documentary form”

Lecture “We can’t get no satisfaction: The unease over the documentary form” with Dr. Elisa Jochum (Deutsche Kinemathek)

in English

The festival’s opening lecture will discuss the many layers inherent in making, seeing, and preserving so-called documentary film: from ethical to political to aesthetic to technical aspects. At least equally characteristic of the documentary form is the impossibility of definitively disentangling those different layers. The unease manifests, for instance, in the long-standing discourse on concepts such as truth, reality, and document. Nomenclature drawing on the term “non-fiction” – originating as a negation and thus a mere foil to “fiction” – testifies to the challenges for academia as well as for archival cataloguing. Instead of despairing at irresolvable documentary issues, this paper recommends emphasizing the nodes – the perpetual ambiguity and complexity – when engaging with documentary materials in filmic, academic, and archival practice.

→ Tickets: €8.50