Programme

Documenta texts "Broken mirrors": approaches to contemporary north american documentaries

We live in a new golden age of documentary film, a new age of redefinition, renovation,
and recreation of the tradition, and North American film has been the cutting edge of this new trend since the late eighties, and the public has responded to these sometimes fractured representations of reality like never before.

Broken Mirrors seeks to be an introductory approach to the main tendencies and tensions that live together in this new era. It is not meant to be an exhaustive study on documentary production in recent years in the United States, nor does it aspire to be a systematic analysis of this certainly very extensive area. Rather it is like an invitation for the reader to explore and journey through some of its forms, certain innovations in its language, and the appearance of new objects and subject matters. The trip takes us from the old, and new, languages of political documentaries to the imaginary (and often very strange) ones that it builds onto contemporary society in order to reach the modulations of subjectivity with which it negotiates public and private spaces in new ways. As it is an introduction for the uninitiated reader, it includes a dictionary of directors, a beginner’s reference guide that offers complimentary information about the diversity of contemporary American documentary film.

María Luisa Ortega
Professor of the Autónoma University of Madrid
Specialized Consultant of Documenta Madrid 07
Cines Princesa
Thursday the 10th at 12:00 pm