Guy Gauthier: Le Documentaire, un autre Cinéma

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The combination of the two approaches enables a thorough analytical interpretation of both concrete works and the complex picture. “The identity of any creative field claiming a certain autonomy presupposes the existence of its history and theory by means of which the field is identified and comprehended as a certain whole. Both also represent a systematic reason for revisiting the results within a longer period of time; while television, production and distribution will do with market research.“ Gauthier focuses his examination on French, English, Canadian, Italian, American and Russian influences.

A systematic history of world documentary cinema has been completely lacking in Czech libraries. In cooperation with AMU Press, the Jihlava festival has published a key work to fill this gap; Le Documentaire, un autre Cinéma (Dokumentární film, jiná kinematografie) by French film historian and theorist Guy Gauthier; translated by Ladislav Šerý. The book interprets the history of documentary film within theoretical frames construed by the author as necessary for the theory of the film genre. “The continuous essay is extended by purely factual supplements at the end of the book; the first part includes fragments of theoretical reflections and bio-filmographies of selected international documentary filmmakers; the second part includes a selective filmography of representatives of national cinematographies selected by the book’s author.” (A quote from the introduction by Vít Janeček and Petr Kubica).

“Some people will say that everything is a fiction. That might be true, however, “fiction” is then deprived of its operational value; comprising everything, it cannot be used for distinguishing. Others will say that everything is a documentary. That might be true as well (any figment of imagination can be dated a posteriori), however, the latter statement is as unproductive as the former. Another possibility is to accept the original idea of perceiving any fiction as documentary and any documentary as fiction; risking that the two will never meet. In other words, none of the two categories is a closed one; the two rather penetrate each other.” (Text on the book cover)