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As a central component of contemporary culture, films mirror and shape political debate. Reflecting on this development, scholars in the field of International Relations (IR) increasingly explore the intersection of TV series, fiction film and global politics. So far, however, virtually no systematic scholarly attention has been given to documentary film within IR.
This book fills this void by offering a critical companion to the subject aimed at assisting students, teachers and scholars of IR in understanding and assessing the various ways in which documentary films matter in global politics. The authors of this volume argue that much can be gained if we do not just think of documentaries as a window on or intervention in reality, but as a political epistemology that - like theories - involve particular postures, strategies and methodologies towards the world to which they provide access.
This work will be of great interest to students and scholars of international relations, popular culture and world politics and media studies alike.
List of contents
Part I – Setting the Scene 1 Introduction, Rens van Munster and Casper Sylvest 2 Your Film in Seven Minutes: Neoliberalism and the Field of Documentary Film Production, Francesco Ragazzi Part II – Staging World Politics 3 Popular Documentaries and the Global Financial Crisis, Chris Clarke and James Brassett 4 Documenting Financial Assemblages and the Visualization of Responsibility Marieke de Goede 5 Non-Linearity in the Ocean Documentary, Philip E. Steinberg 6 Shots of Ambivalence: Nuclear Weapons in Documentary Film, Casper Sylvest 7 Inside War: Counterinsurgency and the Visualization of Violence, Rens van Munster 8 The Reflexivity of Tears: Documentaries of Sexual Military Assault, Robin May Schott 9 Meta-mediation, Visual Agency and Documentarist Reflexivity in Conflict Film: Burma VJ Meets Burke + Norfolk, Rune Saugmann Andersen 10 The Reckoning: Advocating International Criminal Justice and the Flattening of Humanity, Wouter G. Werner 11 Strange Encounters: Past, Present, and Future Conceivable LifeJuha A. Vuori Part III – Behind the Scenes 12 Evil, Art and Politics in Documentary Film: Interview with Joshua Oppenheimer, Rens van Munster and Casper Sylvest 13 Bridging Research and Documentary Film: Interview with Janus Metz and Sine Plambech, Rens van Munster and Casper Sylvest 14 After-ImageJames Der Derian
About the author
Casper Sylvest is Associate Professor, Department of History, University of Southern Denmark.
Rens Van Munster is Senior Researcher, Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS), Copenhagen.
