Toward a Philosophy of the Documentarian

358 Pages·2018·4.874 MB·English

by  Dan Geva

Toward a Philosophy
of the Documentarian
A Prolegomenon
DAN GEVA
Toward a Philosophy of the Documentarian
“Philosophers, like the rest of us, enjoy the movies, but seldom has a philo-
sophic approach yielded a more fruitful expansion of our understanding than
does Dan Geva’s rich examination of what the documentary-filmmaker can gain
from absorbing philosophy. The book begins with a discussion of the Lumières’
Arrival of the Photographers. Toward a Philosophy of the Documentarian marks
the arrival of the philosophic factual filmmaker at the documentary studies’
landing-stage.”
—Brian Winston, University of Lincoln, UK
“Dan Geva’s bold and original new book develops a multi-faceted theory of
the documentarian, synthesizing philosophical, semiotic, psychoanalytic, and
documentary theory perspectives. Marshalling the insights of Heidegger and
Nietzsche, Lacan and Peirce, and focusing on documentary ‘exemplars’ such as
Flaherty, Grierson, Vertov, and Ivens, Toward a Philosophy of the Documentarian
offers a provocative challenge to film theory, and promises to provoke thought
and debate over the very concept of documentary itself.”
—Robert Sinnerbrink, Macquarie University, Australia
“Since the Lumières and Méliès, since Vertov, Flaherty, and Grierson, cinema
theorists and philosophers have been laboring to adjudicate the nature, meaning,
and significance of ‘documentary’ film. A much less discussed companion to this
century-old conversation is the definition of the documentarian herself. At last
we have in hand Dan Geva’s bold, sincere, and committed endeavor to provide a
theory of this figure—or, in a phrase reflecting his humility and humanity, a ges-
ture toward such a theory. Drawing as ably from Saussure’s semiotics, Heidegger
and Sartre’s phenomenology, and Lacan’s psychoanalysis, as among a diverse ros-
ter of Western thinkers (from Aristotle to Kant, from Barthes to Foucault and
Žižek), Geva attempts a striking proposal, namely: a philosophy of the documen-
tarian that brings together the metaphysical, ethical, and aesthetic components of
her presence in the world. Even as Geva’s radical labor of intellectual and disci-
plinary synthesis does, in fact, provide just such a philosophy, it also generously
invites us to think further, with him, toward an evolving philosophy of the docu-
mentarian.”
—David LaRocca, Visiting Assistant Professor, Cinema Department,
Binghamton University and editor of The Philosophy of Documentary Film:
Image, Sound, Fiction, Truth
“At a time when the popularity of the documentary film is swiftly grow-
ing all over the world, the need for a true step Toward a Philosophy of the
Documentarian has never been more urgent or relevant. Dan Geva delivers a
definitive epistemological, ontological, and theoretical analysis of the documen-
tarian impulse—from the vision of the earliest practitioners to the most current
critics and thinkers—a groundbreaking exploration that will reverberate in film
studies classes for decades to come.”
—Alan Berliner, Filmmaker, USA
Dan Geva
Toward a Philosophy
of the Documentarian
A Prolegomenon
Dan Geva
Haifa University
Haifa, Israel
and
Beit-Berl College
Beit-Berl, Israel
ISBN 978-3-319-75567-0 ISBN 978-3-319-75568-7 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75568-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018934853
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A
cknowledgements
Everything I have written in these pages is an expression of thoughts that
have crossed my mind as a result of being-a-documentary-práxis-mensch-
in-the-world. Creating documentary films for the past twenty-five years
out of emotional, intellectual, and spiritual necessity—and not least
joy—I share these thoughts so that they may reach others’ minds and
hearts. Now, they are no longer simply mine but also others’ to use with
their best judgment.
Speaking of, not one word could have been written without those
whose encouragement and help aided me in the writing of this book.
First among many is dear Henry Unger, my loved teacher, Ph.D. advi-
sor, and intellectual inspiration, whose passion for passing on the love
of-and-for knowledge served me as a northern star throughout my jour-
ney. Many thanks also to Regine-Michal Friedman, Alan Rosenthal,
and Nitzan Ben-Shaul for supporting my nomination to the Dan David
Prize. Special thanks to the Dan David international committee mem-
bers, and especially Joel and Ethan Coen, for endowing me with this
prestigious prize and for inspiring me to follow in the footsteps of
their cinematic genius. I would like to express my deep gratitude to
four groundbreaking scholars who infinitely inspired me to dare even
as I based my thinking on their mammoth life’s work: Brian Winston,
Michael Renov, Bill Nichols, and Carl Plantinga. The fruits of their work
galvanized me as I generated this project; their manifested commitment
to theorizing documentary became my central pillar. In the same breath,
I would like to thank John Di Stifano, Boaz Hagin, Robert Sinnerbrink,
v
vi ACKNoWLEDGEMENTS
Garnet Butchart, Shai Biderman, Martin Lucas, Eric Zakim, and dear
Lissa Gotto, distinguished colleagues and true friends, for their undying
support of my passion for philosophizing the documentarian. I would
also like to express my appreciation to my treasured friends Tom Bechtle
and Ami Asher for meticulously and caringly correcting all of the lan-
guage errors innate to any hubristic non-native English speaker. A spe-
cial thank you is reserved for another dear and exceptional friend, David
LaRocca, who generously invested his truly big heart and philosophical
brilliance in every word I attempted to carve out. His steadfast support
remains invaluable to me. In this spirit, I also want to express my sincere
appreciation and deep gratitude to two wonderful people at Palgrave
Macmillan. First, senior editor Philip Getz, for his true belief in the value
of my work and last to the most helpful and committed assistant editor
Amy Invernizzi.
Finally, my deepest thanks and gratitude go to my family for their
everlasting love and care throughout this long and winding journey
across continents: my parents, Malka and Nimrod; my brother, Tal; my
sister, Rachel; my parents-in-law, Rachel and Asher; my wife, Noit, love
of my life and creative significant other for a quarter of a century (and
for many more years to come), partner in our way of práxising documen-
tarianly, and without whose backing and loving guidance none of this
would be either imaginable or possible; lastly, my daughter, Aria, and my
son, Solo—the lights of my life, arkhé of my being.
I dedicate this work to the memory of Chris Marker, a man of stat-
ure, a total artist, and a groundbreaking film-philosopher for opening his
door to me, for believing in me, and thus for changing my life. Deborah
Bertonoff has been a spiritual mentor and a true práxis-mensch, and I am
so grateful that she woke me up from my dogmatic slumber; although
she has been gone for a decade, I am still consumed by her love of life,
her true belief in the goodness of humans, and her faith that living a cre-
ative life ensures all of the above. Chris and Deborah, each in a distinct
way, taught me how to transform the will to power as art into a humble
intellectual and spiritual service—a lesson (documentum) I hope to live
up to.
Tel Aviv, Israel
2018
c
ontents
1 Introduction 1
2 Documentarian-Abstractness (DA) 19
2.1 The Documentarian as Invisible Imago
of the Documentary Screen 19
2.2 The Documentarian as Crisis, Author, Function, Waste 29
2.3 The Ethical Disposition of the Documentarian 40
2.3.1 Preliminaries 40
2.3.2 The Multifaceted Fragility of Sincerity 43
2.3.3 Applied Documentary Ethics—First Engagement 52
2.3.4 Ethic of Truths 54
2.3.5 Concluding Thoughts—First Engagement 61
2.3.6 Final Engagement 64
3 Documentarian-Sensoriality (DS) 73
3.1 Vertov’s Documentarian-Sensoriality (DS) 73
3.1.1 Introductory Remarks 73
3.1.2 The Perfect Man 84
3.1.3 The Icarus Principle 86
3.1.4 The Man: A Preparatory Analysis 87
3.1.5 A Topographical View and Freudian Analogy 88
3.2 Flaherty’s Documentarian-Sensoriality (DS) 98
3.2.1 Preliminaries 98
vii
viii CoNTENTS
3.2.2 In Search of a Point of Attack 101
3.2.3 Between Action and Virtue 106
3.2.4 A Mirror Dialogue 109
3.2.5 Allakariallak’s Other Side of the Mirror 117
3.3 Grierson’s DS 120
3.3.1 Introductory Remarks 120
3.3.2 Thesis: Grierson’s Dialectics 122
3.3.3 Antithesis: Vertov 125
3.3.4 Synthesis: Flaherty 129
4 Documentarian Práxis (DP) 149
4.1 Práxis in the History of Thought 151
4.1.1 The Origins of Práxis 151
4.1.2 From Kant to Marx 154
4.1.3 The Yugoslav School 160
4.1.4 Sartre’s Understanding of Práxis 162
4.1.5 Práxis in the Age of Post-metaphysics:
Freire, Lacan, Heidegger, and Arendt 166
4.2 Documentarian Práxis (DP): A Structural View 170
4.2.1 Preparatory Notes 170
4.2.2 Documentarian Práxis (DP): Analytic Scheme 173
4.3 Documentarian-Práxis (DP)—Joris Ivens 193
4.3.1 “Here and Now” (Hic et Nunc): Ivens’ Earliest
Documentarian Práxis (DP) 194
4.3.2 Preparatory Analysis of H&N 200
5 Documentarian-Invisibility (DI) 231
5.1 Lacan’s Four Discourses 233
5.1.1 Cowie’s Treatment of the Four Discourses 235
5.1.2 Documentarian-Invisibility’s Function
in “The Discourse of the University”
and in Nichols’ “Expository Mode” 239
5.1.3 Documentarian-Invisibility’s Function
in “The Discourse of the Hysteric” and Nichols’
“Participatory Mode” 244
5.1.4 Documentarian-Invisibility’s Function in
“The Discourse of the Master”
and the “Performative Mode” 247
CoNTENTS ix
5.1.5 Documentarian-Invisibility’s Function
in “The Discourse of the Analyst”
and the Documentarian-Práxis 250
5.1.6 Conclusion 256
5.2 The Documentarian-as-Extended-Sign (DES) 256
5.2.1 Preparatory Analysis 257
5.2.2 Phase Two: An Algebraic Analysis of the
Constitutive Relations Among the Four
Fundamental Concepts of the Documentarian 268
Appendix 291
Bibliography 295
Index 335