Critical Writing Index

Introduction: Experiments in Documentary

by Lucas Hilderbrand

Millennium Film Journal, 2009, no. 51, p. 10

This work opens with discussion about how documentary is inherently contradictory, and explores the documentary/experimental film hybrid. The author looks at forms of video art that challenge the widely accepted norms of the documentary form. Through a discussion of the work of a number of contemporary and historical works in the genre, the author explores and catalogues the potentiality of the experimental documentary. Hilderbrand suggests that it functions as a medium that can offer historical revisions and open up space for representation. Hilderbrand states: "experimental documentaries allow for -- maybe even necessitate -- critical subjectiveness, humanist connections, recognition of historical wrong doings, and speculation towards more progressive ways of being and representing."

ITEM 2009.170 – available for viewing in the Research Centre

Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited

John Grierson

Jonathan Kahana

Maya Deren

Stan Brakhage

Man with a Movie CameraDziga Vertov

Night and FogAlain Resnais

Sans SoleilChris Marker

ReassemblageTrinh T. Minh- ha

Tongues UntiedMarlon Rigg

History and MemoryRea Tajiri

diaries (1989-93)Sadie Benning

Symbiopsychotaxiplasm, Take OneWilliam Greaves

Far from PolandJill Godmilow

The Thin BlueLineErrol Morris

L'hippocampeJean Painlevé

AceraJean Painlevé

The Witches' DanceJean Painlevé

RE: The_OperationPaul Chan

Apple Grown in Wind TunnelSteven Matheson

How to Fix the WorldJacqueline Goss

Isle of FlowersJorge Furtado

BlueDerek Jarman

Lost Book FoundJem Cohen

My Life in Five MinutesAllyson Mitchell

The Third MemoryPierre Huyghe

Sad Disco FantasiaSteve Reinke

Black and White Trypps Number ThreeBen Russell

An Injury to OneTravis Wilkerson

The CastingOmer Fast

Walid Ra'ad

The Atlas Group

Daughter RiteMichelle Citron

Inextinguishable FireHarun Farocki

Peggy Ahwesh

Caroline Koebel

Chie Yamayoshi

Liza Johnson

Julia Meltzer

David Thorne

RocketKitKongoKitCraig Baldwin

Greg Youmans

Là-basChantal Akerman

Walid Raad