 Seven theses about border genres / five modest proposals about docudrama Seven theses about border genres
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The documentary evidential* provided a seeing-is-believing certainty at the high moment of modernist documentary practice, largely through formal assertion in practice and innocent trust in reception. Sobriety guaranteed authenticity: it was a case of utilising an ethical and aesthetical neue sachlichkeit to Constitute the Nation - in whatever nation state the documentary was being articulated. Documentary works better as adjective than noun, and the concept of the documentary is now absorbed 'within the sprawling generic system of television non-fiction' - this is the moment of the 'post-documentary'(John Corner). The post-documentary era articulates provisionality and uncertainty, play and self-deprecation; it counts on a knowing audience to understand that truth is always relative, random and contingent. Entertainment guarantees engagement - but at what level? * What is this 'documentary evidential'? Is it different from 'visible evidence'? [Peter Hughes]. My tentative answer: yes, it is different. A developed answer would theorise a paradigm shift in belief in evidence.
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