9th International Documentary Conference
Introduction
Program
Scrennings
In its historical trajectory, documentary film was
recognized as having a primarily pedagogical
or political-militant function. The notion that
cinema may serve as an educational or political
tool has been around since its inception. The
Griersonian matrix, which was the foundation for
documentaries to carry an educational imprint,
led non-fictional films to be mistaken with the socalled
educational cinema.
Filmmakers like Dziga Vertov, just to name a
pioneer, believed in a revolutionary form that
was compatible with the objective of giving
documentary films the status of political
propaganda, which ultimately would not allow it
to tread the same path as that of a pedagogicalmilitant
cinema.
The political activism documentary found ways
to renew itself by borrowing characteristic traits
from the performance cinema, as defined by Bill
Nichols, thus adopting a style that rereads classic
discourses by emphasizing subjective aspects.
Perhaps Michael More is the most popular
representative of this new trend. Curiously,
formal renovation was not characterized by the
international revival of the engaged documentary
form stemming from the polarization caused by
the so-called “War on Terror” waged by the Bush
administration after the 9/11 attacks.
In a new political era, will formal traditions be
once again challenged? The 9th International
Documentary Film Conference proposes to
discuss how politically engaged documentary films
will evolve in face of the new truths confronting
the world given the current political changes
undergoing in America
Maria Dora Mourão and Amir Labaki
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