U know them by their fruit: unfinalizing the ‘extreme other self’ in documentary filmmaking

摘要

My research explores the documentary encounter between the filmmaker and audfamilial subject who is also politically opposite to me, or what I term anud‘extreme other’. The Thesis consists of a one-hour film and a forty thousandudword critical and reflective work analyzing the ethical, aesthetic and politicaludimplications of this documentary encounter. The subject of my film is myudcousin from the USA who used to work as a high school principal, but whoudover the past decade has adopted ethno-religious nationalist views—includingudthe view that only white males should be allowed to vote in the USA. My aimudwas to create a representation of my politically ‘far right’ subject which wouldudbe, to use Mikhail Bakhtin’s term, unfinalizable. My film and my writing bothudfocus on navigating the possible obstacles to unfinalization, such as the fact thatudmy views may be considered oppositional to my cousin’s, my marginal authorialudstatus as a national other, and the implications of theorist Michael Renov’suddesignation of family film as domestic ethnography—a type of film which he writesudis so highly intersubjective due to blood relations that the familial subjectud“refracts” (2004: xiii) the filmmaker and the film becomes anud“autobiographical” self-portrait (ibid).ududI responded to my quandary of representing radical intersubjectivity betweenudmyself and a familial ‘extreme other’ by experimenting with narrative, thematic,udand montage strategies deeply influenced by concepts from life-writing,uddocumentary theory, literature, psychoanalysis and ethnography. Through theudprocess of integrating critical exploration with filmmaking practice, I invented audform and style for the film to approach my goal of unfinalizing, while leavingudtraces of my ethical and aesthetic choices, and of my grappling with theudproblematic nature of representing opposing political views. Meanwhile Iudreflected on the ways in which intersubjectivity has been represented betweenudfilmmakers and ‘extreme others’ in existing documentaries, featuring bothudfamilial and non-familial subjects. Furthermore I reflected on theudautobiographical and performative techniques of marginal authors.ududI began the film as a way of defending my cousin’s liberty to criticize the USudGovernment, in 2004 when the ‘War on Terror’ was rapidly shaping theudzeitgeist. However, I soon found myself in opposition to his ethno-religiousudnationalist views (to use Manuel Castells’ term). Given the radicaludintersubjectivity indicated by Renov’s domestic ethnography, I brought criticaludconcepts to bear on filmmaking practice in order to negotiate my goal ofudunfinalizing my cousin whilst maintaining my own political views which areudradically different from his—and I did this while testing the degree to whichudthis film about him was also about me. Furthermore, I carried out this researchudto find out how such a conceptual exploration could make an integral andudvisible impact on the film.ududI found that part of my motivation for articulating my cousin’s criticismsudagainst the US Government was indeed autobiographical—especially regardingudmy personal desire to escape what I perceived as the American stereotype inudEngland. Meanwhile my reflections on existing documentary work showed meudthat other documentary makers were also personally invested in theirudencounters with ‘extreme others’—even non-familial ones. Furthermore Iuddeveloped the view that designating family films as ‘domestic ethnography’ canudserve to obscure the political messages in such films by overemphasizing theudimportance of the domestic milieu. However, as the director and editor of UudKnow Them By Their Fruit, my persistent experimentation withudautobiographicality eventually led me to further emphasize the public andudpolitical aspects of my film.ududI have contributed an original film built in the unfinalizing tradition of criticaludreflexivity, while problematising the power of authors to construct subjects.udMoreover, I have based much of my filmmaking practice on an approach whichudconsiders what is unsaid, the potential we have for radical intersubjectivity. Forudlack of a better name I have termed this approach my ‘spiritual’ conceptualudframework, and it is tailored for exploring and representing radicaludintersubjectivity in the documentary encounter. This conceptual frameworkudincludes Jean Rouch’s ciné-trance, Levinas’s I-Thou relation, and psychoanalyticudtheory of the doppelgänger device. Furthermore, I have tested Renov’suddesignation of family film as domestic ethnography, and provided a critique basedudon the specific filmmaking circumstances of featuring a familial ‘extreme other’udsubject, in a cross-national US/UK context, where the author is marginal. Iudhave also provided an analysis of radical intersubectivity in non-familial film,udbased largely on my ‘spiritual’ conceptual framework. Finally, I took inspirationudfrom performative techniques deployed by other marginalised authors, as welludas non- or less marginal authors.