You might remember that a few weeks ago, i was in Ghent, Belgium, for Almost Cinema. The festival was not only featuring artworks, concerts and performances which subverted, reinvented or repositioned the ordinary cinema experience, it also dedicated a whole day to a symposium where artists and theorists interrogated the ambiguous relationships between documentary film and reality.
Omer Fast, still from Spielberg’s List, 2003, double-channel video
Katerina Gregos’s presentation
To what extent can a reel of film capture reality–if this is possible at all–and when can we say that it calls a new reality into being? Do not most films oscillate between ‘document’ and ‘argument’; that is, between representing, rewriting and creating reality? Moreover, what strategies do artists use to document our daily lives? Is the detour through alienation and animation perhaps the proper way to make an outright and truthful work? Do new developments in technological media provide new opportunities for documentary artists? Finally, how do these artistic experiments and their problems represent the culture we live in?
The Documentary Real was probably the most satisfying conference i attended this year. I had planned to write down my notes from some of my favourite talks when Robrecht Vanderbeeken from KASK (the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent) informed me that the videos of the symposium were online. I’ll particularly recommend the talk of Curator Katerina Gregos who gave a fascinating overview of what she calls ‘the Elastic Documentary”, artist Jasper Rigole showed us the charming videos he makes using movies he found on flea markets, researcher and curator Edwin Carels shared some fascinating insights about animation and Duncan Speakman explained how mobile media can help shape new documentary practices.
Duncan Speakman, SubtleMob ‘As if it where the last time’ in Ghent on October 21, 2010. Image credit: Reinout Hiel
The Documentary Real was an initiative of Robrecht Vanderbeeken, KASK (Faculty of Fine Arts, University College Ghent) in collaboration with Vooruit and Filmfestival Ghent with the support of VAF Flanders Image.
Image on the homepage: Duncan Speakman, SubtleMob ‘As if it where the last time’ in Ghent on October 21, 2010. Credit: Reinout Hiel.