Rethinking the space between filmmaker, subject and audience : reflections on the shifting nature of the authorial agency in the age of interactive documentary

• Main Author: Colusso, Enrica
• Other Authors: Chanan, Michael
• Published: University of Roehampton 2015
• Subjects: 070.1
• Online Access: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.714472

This dissertation presents an extended analysis of my three most recent works; two feature-length documentaries, ABC Colombia (2007) and Home Sweet Home (2012) and its companion piece, the interactive project Ghost Town (2013), the first chapter of an ongoing multimedia investigation of the transformation of cityscape over time. It comprises an account of the genesis of the publications, the nature and scope of the research and research methodology informing the published works, a theorisation and analysis of the films and the filmmaking processes, along with a discussion of how they contribute to knowledge and advancement in the field of documentary filmmaking and interactive storytelling. All three works explore places and communities I am personally connected to (and inhabit), questioning the relationship between place and identity and the notions of home and belonging, while at the same time interrogating and constructing my own particular belonging to each of the places they engage with. Critically engaging with both the process of making and the works’ final form, this dissertation examines the nature of documentary filmmaking as a cognitive and relational process, a form of engagement with the world that implicates subject, filmmaker and viewer alike. It also reflects on the shifting nature of the authorial agency in the age of interactive documentary. Interrogating and contextualizing my personal developments within the evolving field of documentary filmmaking and new forms of storytelling, in particular the database interactive documentary, the dissertation engages with the critical discourse surrounding contemporary documentary production, drawing from existing scholarship and practice.