Film Studies

“In relation to what sense of reality do we pursue inquiries, construct arguments, make documentaries, or imagine fictions? On what basis do we understand narrative and nonnarrative, fiction and nonfiction? Collecting Visible Evidence provides a jolt to those approaches to film that have privileged fiction films as the most revealing or the only forms of narrative. The authors of this volume return to the scene of fabrication to conduct a rigorous search for evidence. What kind of evidence, for what purpose? Answers vary, but they all compel us to reassess basic assumptions about film form, its claims on reality, and its power to move us.” Bill Nichols, director of the graduate program in cinema studies, San Francisco State University

In documentary studies, the old distinctions between fiction and nonfiction no longer apply, as contemporary film and video artists produce works that defy classification. Coming together to make sense of these developments, the contributors to this book effectively redefine documentary studies. They trace the documentary impulse in the early detective camera, in the reenactment of battle scenes from World War I, and in the telecast of the Nevada A-bomb test in 1952. Other topics include experiments in virtual reality; the crisis of representation in anthropology; and video art and documentary work that challenge the asymmetry of the postcolonial us/them divide.

Contributors: Jenny Cool, Elizabeth Cowie, Faye Ginsburg, Tom Gunning, Eithne Johnson, Alexandra Juhasz, Neil Lerner, Akira Mizuta Lippit, Nancy Lutkehaus, James M. Moran, Vivian Sobchack, Linda Williams, Mark Williams, and Mark J. P. Wolf.

Jane M. Gaines is associate professor of literature and English and director of the Program in Film and Video at Duke University.

Michael Renov is professor of critical studies in the School of Cinema-Television, University of Southern California.

University of Minnesota Press
Printed in U.S.A.
Cover design by Jeanne Lee
Cover art: Still from Sink or Swim, by Su Friedrich (1990), courtesy of the artist; frame enlargement from Territories, by Isaac Julien of Sankofa Film/Video Collective (1984), courtesy of Third World Newsreel.
VISIBLE EVIDENCE VOL. 6