MASTERCLASS: Documentation and creation: animation as documentary

The presentation explores the peculiarities of animation as a medium for documentary films. As a cinematic medium that relies on the creation of images (rather than their recording, as is the case with live-action cinema), animation seems, at first glance, diametrically opposed to the concept of documentary, which is typically perceived as the cinematic genre that aims to present a documented portrayal of a reality as objective as possible. Through a series of examples from the history of cinema, the presentation explains how the animated documentary raises critical questions about the reliability of the recorded cinematic image and highlights the tension between creation and documentation, narrative and reality, which form the foundations of the documentary as a cinematic genre.

Presenter: Charalambos Margaritis