Docufictions and the Human Rights Film

Follow the link below to listen to a conference paper I delivered back in December 2012 on the issue of whether docufictions (hybrid forms of documentary and fiction) pose any challenges for Human Rights film festivals. The paper was delivered as part of the Film and History Association of Australia and New Zealand 16th Biennial Conference. 

Between Spring 2010 and April 2012 I worked as a Features Film Programmer with the Human Rights & Arts Film Festival.  In the paper I address some of the issues involved in making selections for the festival. I particularly focus on the challenges faced by the programming team in respect of how to approach  the new-wave of docufictions currently being made. These include Pawel Kloc's Phnom Penn Lullaby (2011) and Danfung Dennis' Hell and Back Again (2010).  

While such films have human rights related content they also employ hyper-stylisations and other fictional film techniques to the point that they invite the spectator to receive reality as fiction. This raises the issue of whether or not these films can be accepted as appropriate forms of representation in the context of a human rights festival that has an educative and sociopolitical role.  I examine how these films challenge a number of widely held assumptions about what constitutes a human rights documentary film by encouraging the spectator to re-think about the special position documentary cinema has traditionally been seen to occupy in relation to the actuality of the social and historical world. 

To listen to a recording of the conference paper please click on this link: 


https://soundcloud.com/t-w-music/docufictions-and-the-human