Browsing by Subject "Documentary Arts"
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- ItemOpen AccessBeyond the milk carton: strategies for creating and allowing a space for engaging with personal narratives from family members about missing persons(2018) Drennan, Lisa; Maasdorp, LianiThe aim of this study is twofold, firstly to explore various media's coverage of missing children to probe whether they currently include the reflections and personal narratives of family members and loved ones and secondly to propose possible strategies for creating space for such content in the media. The much- publicised case of Madeleine McCann going missing in Portugal in 2007, showed how much power the media still yields and how much awareness can be created if the media choose to cast light on a particular case. But this case also stood out for another reason: many interviews conducted with the family after her disappearance didn't merely contain the facts surrounding her disappearance, they were also heartfelt narratives about the pain and horror that the family were going through. The public were not only made aware of their missing daughter but also of the very real and horrific way her disappearance had punctured their suburban life forever. Very few other cases of missing children have garnered the kind of media attention that allows parents of missing children to reflect in such a way. Most newspapers in South Africa at present barely report a child missing; let a lone create a space for parents to reflect on their loss (Drennan, 2012). News is often considered to be centred around the interests of the élite (Herman and Chomsky 1988) and often certain demographics like race, gender and ethnicity can influence how 'newsworthy' certain crimes or stories are considered to be (Pritchard and Hughes 1997, Gruenewald, Pizarro and Chermak 2009). Although social media allows a flow of information that is immediate (So, 2011), the information is still mostly centred around quick mobilisation of the public to find the missing person in the shortest time possible and doesn't allow a space for family members to reflect or share their experiences. Television plays a vital role by entertaining the viewer with facts and events that engage the audience but not much content can be found that allows the family and friends of the missing person to reflect on their sad and often lonely experience of losing a loved one in such a traumatic way. The existing television formats (fiction and non-fiction) are perhaps not ideal for intimate reflection and sharing emotional responses. By using narrative inquiry and action research while producing my own film about a missing person, I was able to test various fiction and non-fiction programming models. Four cycles of action research helped me to understand and determine what form would be best in order to create a space that would allow for intimate reflection from family members of missing persons. Through a process of trial and error, I found that a documentary form that incorporates inspiration from fiction and non-fiction forms was the most fitting platform to create an intimate space for reflection and sharing (Stubbs 2002; Nichols 2001). By combining these various elements I believe that I was able to make a film that is ethical, sensitive and respectful of my subject; to focus renewed attention on a cold case, while creating space for intimate reflection, something no other medium or platform I studied was able to do.
- ItemOpen AccessA blurred paradise : insider and outsider perspectives on Paternoster(2014) Smith, Alyson Karen; Weinberg, PaulPaternoster is perpetually represented as being a tourist destination primarily through the use of imagery; yet this is often without interrogation of the primary narrative which when examined cracks in the visual façade surface. The overall objective of this research was to review the community conflicts through the use of an insider and outsider approach. This was achieved through using an insider qualitative, consensual, documentary style approach. Fieldwork, participant observation and interviews were used as inroads to the community and to enable the use of photography to explore existing narratives, why they exist and the possibility for alternative narratives. As an owner of property within this community (an insider), one is still categorised as an outsider, as someone not born in the community. This dual role allowed a different interrogation while providing its own challenges of not influencing the research. Further, this contested community with emotional undercurrents embedded in its complex matrix of relationships is further explored through research and interrogation of the perfect picture postcard view. This interrogation uncovers missed opportunities, mistrust, impacts of capitalism, categorisation of people along preconceived lines and a community in strife as it attempts to shift itself from its 19th century comfort zone to the 21st century filled with new economic and social realities. Simultaneously, the research explores the role that insider research presents, as well as the role of the potential biases of the photographer in her ability to create an objective view as possible. This is balanced with being on the outside, on the peripheries of this community and being part of a group that are seen as intruders. This provided a unique opportunity to research the community from a number of angles.
- ItemOpen AccessDina's story : a visual intervention in fathoming history(2016) Corns, Donna; Rijsdijk, Ian-MalcolmA two-part dissertation including a research essay and script for a historical feature film as a work of creative non-fiction. The first 40 pages comprise the research essay discussing archival research methods and narrative strategies employed in the creative production. The script, Dina the runaway, is based on a reading of official records of a criminal case from the Court of Justice in Cape of Good Hope 1737. The intention of the creative reworking is to revivify a historical event hitherto imprisoned in archaic language, providing proximity through visual language to make it speak more directly to the present. Despite efforts of contemporary historians, slavery as part of South African historical consciousness is seldom foregrounded. There is no surviving 'slave voice' - the only way enslaved people 'made it' into history was through transgression, they were essentially criminalised by history. Dina's story and her telling of it serves as an imaginative empathetic intervention in historical transmission. Research methods of reading along and across the archival grain expose power dynamics in linguistic transactions and discrepancies in the records. The script is a creative treatment of 'historical reality,' thereby subverting the generic dichotomy of the historical fiction film and documentary. The essay and script occupy the uncomfortable space of a double consciousness in which the creative and analytic do not so much compete as attempt to coexist.
- ItemOpen AccessDocumenting trauma : an analysis of the construction of traumatic collective memory in the first and last scenes of the documentary, Mama Marikana(2015) Saragas, Aliki; Maasdorp, LianiOn 16 August 2012, the South African Police Service opened fire on rock-drill operators who had gone on a wildcat strike demanding a living wage of R12500, at the Lonmin Platinum mine in Marikana. Thirty-four mineworkers were left dead, seventy-eight were wounded and over two hundred and fifty were arrested. The shooting on 16 August was dubbed the ‘Marikana Massacre’, and has been compared to the lethal use of force during the Sharpeville massacre in 1960 (South African History Online, “Marikana Massacre 16 August 2012”). The documentary by Rehad Desai, Miners Shot Down has made a valuable contribution to balancing media representation of the events and the mineworkers’ perspectives, but to date the media has neglected to adequately engage with the plight of the widows and other women left behind in Marikana after the massacre. In reaction to the neglect and marginalisation that they experienced the women of the community formed the Marikana Women’s Organisation, Sikhala Sonke, in Wonderkop near Marikana. ! My film, Mama Marikana, aims to give a voice to the women of Marikana: the widows, mothers, sisters and community members left behind and forgotten by society after the Marikana massacre. It takes a look behind the miners’ story as five Marikana women struggle to move from a space of oppression to a space of empowerment. The film exposes a personal account of how women fight within a traumatised space: through the growth of the women’s organisation, Sikhala Sonke, one member’s rise to Parliament, personal sacrifices for the community and the empowerment of victims. The cinema of memory culminates at the intersection of history, documentary and cinema (Rabinowitz 120). By combining film with memory, and their multidimensional dreamlike “aura of insubstantiality” (MacDougal 29), documentaries can be involved in collective memory transmission in order to break officially imposed silences and contribute to different interpretations of history (Waterson 51). This study analyses how the montage editing of certain conventions of documentary filmmaking present in the first and last scene of my masters documentary Mama Marikana, transform it into a cinema of memory that allows for the transmission of a social, collective memory that can endure over time (Waterson 51). Previous work has failed to present how a structural analysis of montage editing and juxtaposition of conventions associated with the documentary form can transform a documentary into a cinema of memory. This research and my ! 5! documentary, Mama Marikana, attempt to create an alternative discourse on the role of memory creation within the traumatised and gendered space of Marikana. Using the concept of “cinema as language” (Carrol 1) and a qualitative structural analysis approach, the montage editing in the first and last scenes of Mama Marikana will be evaluated. Documentary conventions that will be considered include testimony (interviews with the widows and women of Sikhala Sonke Women’s Organisation), reenactment (a play in which the women act out their memories and interpretations of the massacre that took place on 16 August 2012), cinéma vérité footage [of the audience (male mineworkers) watching the women perform the play at the Marikana Commemoration Rally 2014] and archive footage (of the massacre that took place on 16 August 2012 and its aftermath). The research and film, Mama Marikana aim to provide a space where the women’s stories can be told and their voices heard. This includes the potential to make the personal political and to break official silences of traumatised spaces through the transmission of individual testimony into a social collective memory, where the film itself becomes an event/ memory performing its own meanings (Waterson 65). The combination of these documentary conventions allow the telling of an untold story that engages with subaltern voices in a liminal space trapped in traumatic history.
- ItemOpen AccessExamining personal memory in film: A reflection of documenting memory-stories in Reimagining Memories(2023) Mathafeng, Refiloe; Modisane, LithekoMy film, Reimagining Memories, explores my grandmother's childhood. Some of her most cherished memories are her trips between Lesotho and Cape Town and the time she would spend in the city. With clarity, attachment and a sense of longing, she often never misses an opportunity to reminisce about her travels. She longingly talks about her train trips from Gugulethu to Cape Town CBD, the beach and the home she shared with her brothers and sisters. These are the stories I grew up hearing, and when she was diagnosed with dementia in 2019, these memories stayed with her the most. At its core, Reimagining Memories interrogates space, remembering and the storytelling aspect of orality that has allowed my grandmother's memory-stories to exist inter-generationally. The concept of orality is integral to the film and is what inspired its making. Based on stories of her childhood that I heard growing up, my film visually reimagines what my grandmother's childhood between two worlds would have looked like had she had access to technologies that would allow her to document them. Instead, it is through telling that her memory-stories have been preserved and transmitted down generations. Based on the film, this mini-thesis examines the representation of personal memory using cinematic language and the documentary genre. It utilizes three conventions of documentary, namely testament (interviews), archive and experimentation, to reimagine my grandmother's memory stories while simultaneously interrogating what it means to remember Cape Town in the 1950s during a time of political unrest, with great fondness. In conjunction with my film, this mini-thesis highlights the selectiveness and subjectivity ingrained in the process of an individual's act of remembering. In documenting these stories, the film itself becomes a memory – performing new meanings and alternative ways of engaging with orality, questions of memory and remembering.
- ItemOpen AccessExamining personal memory in film: A reflection of documenting memory-stories in Reimagining Memories(2023) Mathafeng, Refiloe; Modisane, LithekoMy film, Reimagining Memories, explores my grandmother's childhood. Some of her most cherished memories are her trips between Lesotho and Cape Town and the time she would spend in the city. With clarity, attachment and a sense of longing, she often never misses an opportunity to reminisce about her travels. She longingly talks about her train trips from Gugulethu to Cape Town CBD, the beach and the home she shared with her brothers and sisters. These are the stories I grew up hearing, and when she was diagnosed with dementia in 2019, these memories stayed with her the most. At its core, Reimagining Memories interrogates space, remembering and the storytelling aspect of orality that has allowed my grandmother's memory-stories to exist inter-generationally. The concept of orality is integral to the film and is what inspired its making. Based on stories of her childhood that I heard growing up, my film visually reimagines what my grandmother's childhood between two worlds would have looked like had she had access to technologies that would allow her to document them. Instead, it is through telling that her memory-stories have been preserved and transmitted down generations. Based on the film, this mini-thesis examines the representation of personal memory using cinematic language and the documentary genre. It utilizes three conventions of documentary, namely testament (interviews), archive and experimentation, to reimagine my grandmother's memory stories while simultaneously interrogating what it means to remember Cape Town in the 1950s during a time of political unrest, with great fondness. In conjunction with my film, this mini-thesis highlights the selectiveness and subjectivity ingrained in the process of an individual's act of remembering. In documenting these stories, the film itself becomes a memory – performing new meanings and alternative ways of engaging with orality, questions of memory and remembering.
- ItemOpen AccessExamining personal memory in film: A reflection of documenting memory-stories in Reimagining Memories(2023) Mathafeng, Refiloe; Modisane, LithekoBackground Treatment-limiting severe cutaneous adverse reactions (SCAR) occur more commonly amongst persons co-infected with tuberculosis (TB) and advanced HIV. The impact of SCAR on long-term HIV and TB outcomes is unknown. Methods Patients with active TB and/or HIV admitted to Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa with SCAR between 1/10/2018 and 30/09/2021 were eligible. Clinical and laboratory follow-up data was collected for 6 and 12-month outcomes: mortality, TB and antiretroviral therapy (ART) regimen changes, TB treatment completion, and CD4 count recovery. Results Forty-eight SCAR admissions included: 34, 11, and 3 HIV-associated TB, HIV-only and TB-only patients with 32, 13 and 3 cases of drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms, StevensJohnson syndrome/toxic epidermal necrolysis and generalised bullous fixed drug eruption respectively. Nine (19%), all HIV-positive, were deceased at 12-months, and 12 (25%) were lost to all care levels. Amongst TB-SCAR patients, seven (21%) were discharged on all four first-line anti-TB drugs (FLTD), while 12 (33%) had discharge regimens with no FLTDs; 24/37 (65%) completed TB treatment. Amongst HIV-SCAR patients, 10/31 (32%) changed ART regimen. If retained in care (24/36), median (IQR) CD4 counts increased by 12-months post-SCAR (115 (62-175) vs. 319 (134-439) cells/uL). Conclusion SCAR admission amongst patients with HIV-associated TB results in substantial mortality, and considerable treatment complexity. However, if retained in care, TB regimens are successfully completed, and immune recovery is good despite SCAR.
- ItemOpen AccessExtreme Identities: An examination of extreme sports and the creation of identity within the extreme sports experience(2019) Patch, Sophie; Weinberg, PaulIn recent years has been a rapidly growing increase in the popularity of extreme sports. Whilst the root of the exact reasons that extreme sports have grown so dras;cally as an industry is not en;rely clear, there are many theories and sugges;ons which can create a narra;ve to the evolu;on of the sports. Not only have the sports become more popular, but the varie;es of the sports and the varie;es of the par;cipants have also increased, crea;ng more diversity and the evolu;on of a extreme sports culture. This has coincided, inten;onally or un-inten;onally, with the glamorisa;on and commodifica;on of extreme sports lifestyles and the technological advancements of the twenty-first century. In line with the above, the purpose of this study, and the photographic project which accompanies it, is to examine; • What are the factors that contribute to the popularity of extreme sports • Who takes part in extreme sports • Why do people take part • What is the future for extreme sports and it’s par;cipants The photographic project comprises of four photographs of each par;cipants, two of which are portraits and two of which are supplied by the par;cipants themselves. The inten;on of the photographs is to give insight into both who the par;cipants are as individuals and as athletes and how they view themselves within these roles. Interviews were also conducted alongside which are referenced throughout the paper. The paper combines the research and theories of other scholars, against the findings of my own study and how the photographic project represents this, to try and draw answers to the above state ques;ons. The results were varied and did not offer full answers but rather sugges;ons into where more research could be done to further this study and future studies. Most notably; Extreme sports and femininity, Extreme sports and diversity, Extreme sports and classism and Extreme sports and environmentalism.
- ItemOpen AccessHere / Not Here(2018) Tither, Mary Elizabeth ‘Emmy’; Bosch, TanjaThis paper is a complement to the creative audio miniseries, HERE / NOT HERE. Its purpose is to analyse the concept of home from an academic perspective, both as complement and as perspective to the audio series’ autobiographical nature. Through philosophical, reflexive enquiry that analyses home’s connection to place, landscape, memory, senses and the body, this paper answers the question - ‘what does home mean to others’? In conjunction with the audio series, this paper also answers the question - ‘what do we talk about when we talk about home’? The paper starts with an introduction to the idea of home and the project as a whole, before diving into a discussion on podcasting, what it is, how podcasts are produced, and how this project fits into the existing podcasting landscape. After laying that knowledge base, the paper then turns to academic research theory, arguing that this project adds to an academic library of reflexive enquiry and subverted fieldwork. Following that, the paper discusses the academic theory of both of place and home, before deconstructing home and looking at how home interacts with other facets of the human experience, namely - the self, childhood, memory, the senses and the body. Throughout, the paper connects academic theory to the podcast’s creative elements. As such, it provides a context for the podcast’s two series - one of which looks at home through the lens of the senses, the other through the lens of the body, while also discussing other aspects of home. Previous work has failed to look at home from such a comprehensive perspective; this paper aims to tie together those threads, as well as put forth autobiographical self-reflection as fuel for both creative and academic work. In this way, this paper provides an academic backbone to the audio project’s creative enquiry. The paper itself also provides its own findings, the main one being this - when we talk about home, we talk about ourselves.
- ItemOpen AccessHidden Hout Bay mainstream, myths and margins(2019) Luckett, Sidney; Weinberg, PaulThis essay, which accompanies a photo-book, constructs a different picture which I have made of Hout Bay; a picture that lies behind the glossy postcard and calendar photographs of this global tourist attraction; one that lies hidden from foreign tourists as well as from local visitors to the harbour, who are attracted by sunset trips into the bay and ‘locally harvested’ sea-food ‘fresh from the sea’ eateries. Using a photographic metaphor this picture is an overlay of three ‘negatives’ and like the negatives used in film photography, they need to be ‘developed’ before they can be seen by the eye of a casual passer-by who might gaze upon them in an exhibition. However a photographer knows that (the process of) developing a negative can be halted at any point that she chooses and what is revealed is what she already had in her minds-eye as the significant idea that she wants to communicate (which may or may not be what the passer-by sees). This is an apt metaphor for the three sections of this essay– each of the three central sections are in the process of being developed and what is read now is nothing more than a moment in their development. Like any overlay they need to be seen in combination to make the sense that the photographer (myself) wishes to communicate. But unlike most overlays, this overlay is comprised of three ‘negatives’ that in each case have been halted the process of their development. These three transparencies are: Firstly of my adventure in a political praxis that has traversed social activism, academia as a rural/environmental economist and currently involves photographically documenting the lives of the people of Hangberg (Hout Bay), squeezed between the iconic Sentinel peak and Mariners Wharf (an important tourist attraction) on the Hout Bay harbour. The second transparency is an account of the development of documentary photography, a much contested enterprise (Rosenblum 1997, Marien 2002, Golden 2005, Abbott 2010), using Habermas’ three knowledge constitutive interests (Habermas 1981, Habermas 1985) as an indicative framework. The third is an analysis of the socio-political context of Hangberg that draws together political theories that have their roots in Antonio Gramsci’s (Gramsci 1971, Simon 1991) notion of the subaltern, most notably the Subaltern Studies Group in Calcutta formed by Gayatri Spivak and exemplified in Partha Chattterjee’s (Chatterjee 2000, Chatterjee 2004, Chatterjee 2011) distinction between political and civil societies, Asef Bayat’s (Bayat 2013, Bayat 2013) quiet encroachment of the ordinary, Hardt and Negri,’s (Hardt 2009, Hardt 2017) perspective on the commons, as well as Murray Li’s (Li 2007, Li 2014), Shiva’s (Shiva 1988) and Scott’s (Scott 1998, Scott 2009) (re)thinking about capitalist modernity.
- ItemOpen Access"I'm not going to let the patriarch stop me!": Examining the Obsession with Muslim Women's Bodies, Voices and Veils in Cinema, Television & Popular Culture(2022) Behardien, Thaakirah; Haupt, Adam; Maasdorp, LianiHistorically, Muslim female bodies have been a key focus of attention in colonial and patriarchal discursive practices. This colonial and patriarchal desire to control Muslim women's bodies ± and, by extension, their voice ± is rooted in Orientalism. Today, Orientalist modes of representation are sustained via consumer culture as well as the ways in which Muslim women are represented in mainstream media, cinema, and popular culture. Arguably, the need to control Muslim women's bodies is none more evident than in the polemic over the hijab and veil, which are banned in countries such as France and enforced in states such as Iran and Saudi Arabia. Not only is this banishment and enforcement of the hijab inherently a sexist (and racist) policy that deprives Muslim women of autonomy, but this need to control Muslim women's bodies may also be linked to the fear of female sexuality. This paper seeks to analyse the policing of the Muslim female body and dress through representations in the mainstream media, television, and cinema. In addition, this paper argues that this fascination with the Muslim female body as well as her voice and dress are rooted in Orientalist traditions, which are still perpetuated today. Lastly, referring to my own documentary ± An-Nisaa (Women) ± as a case study, I attempt to demonstrate how the film resists Orientalist tropes and traditions.
- ItemOpen AccessPublic mirror: legitimizing 'social' photography as a contemporary discipline(2018) Gwaze, AlexWith all the public information about any famous person, topic or event 'googleable’ on the Internet, there seems to be nothing new for 'digital natives’ to discover other than the elusive Self. The Self is the 'new frontier’ and the smartphone camera is at the forefront of this quest, unearthing and exhibiting different kinds of content everyday. With over 95 million photographs and videos shared on Instagram daily; Photography has merged with social networking sites and applications (SNS/A) to become a recognisable phenomenon called – 'Social’ Photography. Despite its rich association with legitimate visual art-forms and numerous scholarly articles examining it’s various forms – the term 'Social’ Photography is unfamiliar to most. This inquiry discusses 'Social’ Photography in relation to existing literature to argue for its establishment as a legitimate discipline within the Creative Arts. By acknowledging its subjectivity and utilization of digital technologies, this study employed an interpretive group of methods and identified six characteristics of 'Social’ Photography – namely, (i) Activity, (ii) Participation, (iii) Identity, (iv) Glamour, (v) Protest, and (vi) Spectacle – that exemplify its capacity to curate a meaningful democratic public image. These six aspects can be used to categorize and formalize individual behaviour that can be analysed and interpreted to foster a better understanding of 'Social’ Photography as a discipline.
- ItemOpen AccessReport on the implementation of an impact campaign for the documentary film, This Land: From cinema to community centres - a guide to developing a grassroots impact strategy(University of Cape Town, 2020) Redelinghuys, Henriette; Maasdorp, LianiThis Land is a forty-eight minute narrative documentary which tells the story of a small village in rural South Africa, where the community resists the development of a mine on their land. The impact campaign for This Land evolved over time, as did my role in. It could be described as a process of guided learning-in-practice, where I consulted with researchers, academics, civil society leaders and representatives from the communities where This Land was filmed. I furthermore researched other successful impact campaigns, for example the impact campaign for Miners Shot Down by Rehad Desai; I attended an impact "Boot Camp" convened by Dr. Liani Maasdorp from the Centre for Film and Media Studies at UCT; and I researched global impact case studies. While I don't describe my academic research in this report, I describe the strategy that evolved for This Land, its implementation and the relationship between the film impact goals and the impact campaign.