Sybil Delgados ” If truth be told, can ‘toons tell it?’ (1997)
Looking at the key text, ”If truth be told, can ‘toons tell it?’ (1997), Sybil Delgado goes on to argue that, in light of Bill Nichols description being “too abstract” and has tendency to ” lose sight of other issues” (Nichols, 1994,pp.95) , the “reflexive” is the most self aware and “utilises the devices of other documentary, foregrounding such devices in an effort to empathises them” (1997, pp.191). This gives implications that perhaps in relation to the subjective translation, the reflexive mode offers an interesting stance tied to viewer association with other documentary forms. Nichols also goes on to state how ” Reflexive techniques, if employed, do not so much estrange us from the text’s own procedures, as draw our attention to the subjectivities” (1994, pp.96). This further insinuates how to reflexive documentary mode can be beneficial when representation subjective stories and opinions.
Delgaudio also discusses ethical dilemma with representing’s versions of factual evidence through animated documentary. They state that the film Evolution (Max and Dave Fleischer, 1925) “provoked Wrath of Fundamentalists who objected to a Darwinian view of creation ” (1997, pp.192). This anger could perhaps stem from the accessibility and popularity of the animated cartoon, especially companies such as Fleischer, and how in the eyes of such fundamentalists, this could lead to mass spread of ‘misinformation’. Delgaudio goes on to discuss how the reflexive mode of documentary is best suited for animation in its form of “metacommentary”(1997,pp.192), and how the reflexive mode can underline the “epistemological doubt” that is seen in the presentation of scientific theory through artistic mediums (1997, pp.193).
Delgaudio’s main arguments surrounds that despite what the film is portraying, all film creators are aware that the film itself is a fabrication.
Paul Ward’s “Animating with Facts: The Performative Process of Documentary Animation in the ten mark (2010)”
An interesting ’documented’ piece Ward brings attention to is a stop motion animated feature called ”The Ten Mark” (Sheehan, 2010) which references the murders of John Christie. Its evocative, still and silent nature brings to attention, in my opinion, Bill Nichols mentions of the performative documentary in which there is more atmospheric implication than overtly stated fact (Nichols, 1994). While the piece does not inherently inform, it provides evocation for its context. This expands on Bill Nichols “Fantasamatic subject “as the empty spaces highlights how ” a lost object haunts the film” (2016,Pp.38). The presence that is missing says more to the viewer than what is shown to them, and the ‘re-enactment’ of a reality tinged with horror that “take on a meaning that is not their usual meaning” (Nichols, 2016, pp.35).
References
Delgaudio, S. (1997) If Truth Be Told, Can Toons Tell It? Documentary and Animation. Film
History, 9(2), pp. 189-199. Available at:https://www-proquest com.arts.idm.oclc.org/docview/2191209/abstract/3E9AC3D7CE22475
6PQ/1?accountid=10342# (Accessed 15/06/2022)
Ward, P. (2011) ‘Animating with Facts: The Performative Process of Documentary Animation
in the ten mark (2010)’, Animation, 6(3), pp. 293–305. doi: 10.1177/1746847711420555.