Truth Out of Context: The Use of Found Footagein Let The Fire Burn

Polish Journal of English Studies

卷:4

Kevin King¹ 

[1] University of Lodz;

关键词: move;    compilation documentary;    authorial voice;    documentary mode;   

DOI  :  

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

The documentary film Let The Fire Burn utilizes only preexisting news, deposition and documentary footage to chronicle the 1985 bombing of a radical political group’s headquarters by the city of Philadelphia. The article holds that the process of editing this compiled footage into a narrative sequence reflects the temporal process of contextual change in what both the filmmakers and viewers consider authorial voice of “truth” in 2013 as opposed to 1985. This new contextual viewpoint reflects the proliferation of digital footage from devices such as smart phones, police body cameras and surveillance cameras that have often exposed police and other officials in deceptive practices and falsehoods. This context creates the framework for a new perspective on the MOVE bombing, in which audiences detect a new “truth” behind contemporaneous news coverage and official statements on the event. Yet this new perspective can also be manipulated through the contextual assumptions of current audiences, ones that center upon the assumed validity of found footage over more formal content.

【 授权许可】

Unknown