Direct cinema and a making of the ‘real’: polyphonic narrative, spatial montage and cinema-sincerity

Aston, Judith

Abstract

Building on Rouch’s thoughts on cinema-sincerity, this paper will interrogate new possibilities for the creation of polyphonic narratives brought about by the multiple windows environment of 21st century computing. Drawing on material recorded in the Sudan/Ethiopian borderlands between the mid-1960s and the late 1990s by the anthropologist Wendy James, the paper will consider and illustrate ways in which computers can be used to privilege spatial montage over sequential montage, creating new possibilities for ethnographic film within the context of interactive cinema. Throughout, the close relationship between the film-maker and the filmed will be considered, to consider the performative aspect of film-making through which ‘truths’ and points of view are revealed in ways that that are the special preserve of the subjective camera eye.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: International Jean Rouch Symposum
• Start Date: Nov 14, 2009
• End Date: Nov 20, 2009
• Deposit Date: Oct 7, 2010
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 10, 2016
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: Ethnographic film, fluid interfaces, spatial montage, performative documentary
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/990506
• Publisher URL: http://www.comite-film-ethno.net/colloque-jean-rouch/textes-colloque-JR/aston.pdf
• Contract Date: Feb 10, 2016