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Not Another Moment of Your Salvation: Documentary, Art Practice and Their Empathic Misadventures

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What are the losses when cultural producers solicit empathy in viewers? If we are to avoid a cinema or art practice of liberalism, what form, tone, timbre should our input as cultural producers take? Filmmaker, film programmer and writer Minou Norouzi reflects on the creativetheoretical process of developing her essay film On the Tenderness of Men and contextualizes this work-in-progress in relation to her research on the role of empathy in representing migrant and intercommunal ‘Others’. She borrows the ethical framework defined in documentary scholarship as reflexive filmmaking to instigate a shift towards reflexive film viewing. Unsettling well-trodden discourses on the ethics of representation this chapter puts at the centre the ethical obligation of viewers. Its core proposition is the development of viewing cultures that recognize the pitfalls of empathic engagement and the means to navigate out of this by engaging viewers though refracted, multivocal communication and visuality.

Keywords: art practice of liberalism ; cinema of liberalism ; cultural production ; documentary ; empathy ; ethics of representation ; filmmaking ; ineffable ; intercommunal others ; migrant others ; multivocal communication ; narrative opacity ; reflexive spectatorship ; refracted visuality ; refraction

Hardback ISBN: 9781789387438
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References

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References

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  2. Baldwin, J. ,, & Jones, E. P. . ( 2014). Notes of a native son. Beacon Press;.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Bandyopadhyay, S. . ( 2011). Sibaji Bandyopadhyay reader: An anthology of essays. Worldview Publications;.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Blue, J. . ( 1965;). Thoughts on Cinéma Vérité and a discussion with the Maysles Brothers. . Film Comment, 2 (4), 22–30.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Brimmer-Beller, N. . ( 2020). NYFF 2020: ‘Meeting the Man: James Baldwin in Paris’ review: A stunning portrait of meta-textual tension. Film Daze. https://filmdaze.net/nyff-2020-meeting-the-man-james-baldwin-in-paris-review-a-stunning-portrait-of-meta-textual-tension/
  6. Chouliaraki, L. . ( 2013). The ironic spectator: Solidarity in the age of post-humanitarianism. Polity Press;.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Demos, T. J. . ( 2018). Migrant world: On Ai Weiwei's human flow. BOMB Magazine. https://bombmagazine.org/articles/migrant-world-on-ai-weiweis-human-flow/
  8. Dixon, T .. ( 1970, UK). Meeting the man: James Baldwin in Paris [Documentary]. https://mubi.com/films/meeting-the-man-james-baldwin-in-paris
  9. Godmilow, J. . ( 1999). What's wrong with the liberal documentary? Peace Review. https://www3.nd.edu/∼jgodmilo/liberal.html
  10. Godmilow, J. . ( 2001). Kill the documentary as we know it: Dogma 2001. https://www3.nd.edu/∼jgodmilo/KillTheDoc.pdf
  11. Graham, P. . ( 1964;). ‘Cinéma-Vérité’ in France. . Film Quarterly, 17 (4), 30–36.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Hall, J. A. ,, & Schwartz, R. . ( 2019;). Empathy present and future. . The Journal of Social Psychology, 159 (3), 225–243.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Heerten, L. . ( 2017). The Biafran War and postcolonial humanitarianism: Spectacles of suffering. Cambridge University Press;.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Hernández, E. ,, & Anzaldúa, G. . ( 1995;). Re-thinking margins and borders: An interview with Gloria Anzaldúa. . Discourse, 18 (1/2), 7–15.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Hroch, M. . ( 2013). National romanticism. . In B. Trencsényi , & M. Kopeček . (Eds.), National romanticism: The formation of national movements: Discourses of collective identity in Central and Southeast Europe 1770–1945, Volume II (pp. 4–18). Central European University Press;. http://books.openedition.org/ceup/2245268
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Lebow, A. . ( 2015). The unwar film. . In A companion to contemporary documentary film (pp. 454–474). Wiley Blackwell;.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Maibom, H. L. . ( 2017). In H. Maibom . (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of philosophy of empathy (, 1st. ed.). Routledge;.
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Mallgrave, H. F. ,, & Ikonomou, E. . ( 1994). In L. Kostman , & B. Gilman . (Eds.), Empathy, form, and space: Problems in German aesthetics, 1873–1893. The Getty Centre for the History of Art and the Humanities;.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Minh-ha, T. T. . ( 2010). Elsewhere, within here: Immigration, refugeeism and the boundary event. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group;.
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Nichols, B. . ( 2017). Introduction to documentary (, 3rd. ed.). Indiana University Press;.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Rangan, P. . ( 2014). For a critique of the documentary logic of Sobriety. World Picture, 9, 1–7.
  22. Rangan, P. . ( 2017). Immediations: The humanitarian impulse in documentary. Duke University Press;.
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Winston, B. ,, & British Film Institute . (Eds.). ( 2013). The documentary film book. Palgrave Macmillan on behalf of the British Film Institute;.
     [Google Scholar]
  24. Yimer, D. . ( 2021). Film quarterly webinar: Mediterranean migration and new documentary forms. https://filmquarterly.org/2021/06/03/webinar-mediterranean-migrations-new-documentary-forms/

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