The Other, The Same: Towards a Metamodern Poetics with Heddy Honigmann

Modernism and The Poetics of Sameness and Presence”. The author argues that through a paradigm shift from post-modernism towards what she proposes to refer to as meta-modernism, a new kind of poetic comes to the fore in which senses of ‘sameness’ and ‘presence’ and a drive towards inter-subjective connection and dialogue are pivotal. At the same time a turn to the subject, the real and the private, are the preferred strategies to address the central topics in contemporary culture; that of (often traumatic) memory and identity. The re-evaluation of the subject as an active, embodied and emotional individual is fundamental to such a shift.

A Politics of Nearness: Uses of Montage and Haptics in Documenting Cultural Experiences of Communities of India

The essay focuses on the applications, epistemological and political implications of montage and haptics in documentary practice. The author argues that documenting local cultures and cultural practices constitutes a critical departure from dominant ideological and political discourses surrounding the northeast region of India resulting in it being viewed as the distant other of the nation. The author concludes that a ‘move towards haptics leads to a documentary practice that is less motivated towards normative techniques of interpretation and exposition, and by contrast places viewers in partial and sensory encounters with the life-worlds of the subjects they encounter.’

New Day Films: Collective Aesthetics and the collection

The chapter tells the history of New Day Films, a film collective founded 1972. Today, New Day is one of the most financially stable nontheatrical distribution collectives in North America, boasting more than 165 members and 1m USD in yearly revenues. Films distributed by the collective have been screened, broadcast and awarded around the workd, studied in media journals, discussed at organised events, showcased in museums and collected by libraries. New Day’s collective (and its collection) provide compelling objects of study for the history of gender and documentary authorship.

The Memories of Belleville Baby: Autofiction as Evidence

The essay studies the impact of autofiction and memory on the requirement that documentary filmmaking is an evidence based practice. Using Mia Engberg’s film Belleville Baby as an example, the author discusses how the film’s narrative and visual form are affected by the ambivalence injected through the use of autofictive references and diary based memories. The author concludes that this is an ultimate example of (female) documentary authorship.

Women in the Director’s Chair: The ‘Female Gaze’ in Documentary Film

This essay examines the concept of a ‘female gaze’ in documentary film with a specific consideration of the work, and viewpoints, of women directors. The question asked is whether a film as a creative artefact, as well as if the working opportunities within the film industry, are affected by the fact that the person making the film is biologically female. French concludes that it is indeed so, and that “part of this recognition is due to visible female aesthetic approaches, world, views, and treatments of subjects, themes, and the overall privileging of female subjectivity.”

‘Being a Woman Documentary Maker in Taiwan’ – An Interview with Singing Chen and Wuna Wu

Women documentarists have a strong position in the Taiwanese film industry. They receive commissions from people from all social strata, including local politicians and candidates to the presidential post. Berry’s interview thus focuses on the working conditions and social environment for women filmmakers in Taiwan.

Constructing an Intimate Sphere Through Her Own Female Body: Naomi Kawase’s Documentary Films

The majority of Naomi Kawase’s documentary films are based on her own life experiences, leading to conclusions that they are entirely self-reflexive. The author argues that ‘they instead show an alternative way of constructing relationships among people’. She also claims that indicate a possibility to ‘go beyond the binarism between ‘individual’ and ‘society’’ by creating an ‘intimate sphere’ which transcends the general idea of societal discourse.

Speaking About or Speaking Nearby? Documentary Practice and Female Authorship in the Films Of Kim Longinotto

Kim Longinotto’s films are known for ‘their control of emotion, apparently combining a rallying cry against social oppression while still retaining an effective confessional intimacy’, according to Murray. The author argues that Longinotto’s mode of address through an empathic listening, which emphasises participation with its women subjects rather than a narrative about them, allows for the emotional and moral complexity of women to be fully realised on screen. She concludes that this might be evidence to claim a discernibly ‘female’ style of documentary authorship if asserted with scrutiny and rigour.

The Feminist Voice: Improvisation in Women’s Autobiographical Filmmaking

The essays discusses the mindful use of improvisational methods in women’s autobiographical filmmaking as a means to establish a feminist documentary voice that lies outside of patriarchy and established Western notions of subject, using intersections between improvisational theory and the well-established theories of subjective voice in documentary. The author concludes that “improvisation as a working method invites practitioners into a space of community, empowerment and political change.” … “”Through the utilisation of improvisation as a method of feminist autobiographical documentary praxis, filmmakers can take a step in the direction towards a future promising personal growth and both social and political change and define their work outside of standardised, patriarchal means.”

Interview: ‘The Final Projects of Hannah Wilke and Jo Spence’ – A Dialogue Between Elena Crippa and Anna Backman Rogers

Crippa and Backman Rogers discuss the feminist approach embedded in Wilke’s and Spence’s photographic work. Entirely documentary and self-reflexive, they also talk about how it deals with issues like the self, illness, narcissism, sexuality and performance.