Testimony and Film

Monica Jato*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

This chapter offers a new look into the intersection between testimony and film. It further explores the productive tension between documentary’s constant flirtation with fiction and its drive to offer a truthful access to the historical world. The questions at the core of this fruitful tension and its manifestation through documentary’s own evolution in its multiple modes (expository, observational, interactive, self-reflexive and performative) rest, firstly, upon what has been named in this chapter the “documentary pact” and its promise of truth in its interaction with testimonial practices and, secondly, on how this pact has been challenged in recent testimonial films ascribed to the performative mode: the suspension of a realist representation, the dismantling of the authorial voice of testimony and the undoing of authenticity now work towards offering a new way of producing meaning in the absence of the truth.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Palgrave Handbook of Testimony and Culture
EditorsSara Jones, Roger Woods
Place of PublicationCham
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan
Pages209-235
Number of pages27
Edition1
ISBN (Electronic)9783031137945
ISBN (Print)9783031137938, 9783031137969
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 20 Apr 2023

Keywords

  • Testimony
  • memory
  • documentary film

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