Higher truths and so‐called lies: Documentary's animated authenticity

Abstract

A masterclass in Serbia on documentary film debates creativity. Experimental and documentary filmmakers in the region assert the boundaries of documentary in order to transgress them. Creativity offers a means to authenticity, animated through viewers' projection. Approaching authenticity as animated rejects preoccupations with the mechanical indexicality of the camera. Rather than focusing on index as trace, the ambivalence of indexicality productively moves between representation and reality. This highlights two paradoxes of documentary: that fictional techniques create a real world and that individuals animate types. Authenticity is fragile. Documentary creativity celebrates this vulnerability, inviting visual anthropology to experiment, as well.