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Mission Statement: SCMS Documentary Studies
Interest Group
Developments in media studies over the last twenty years
have demonstrated a dramatic increase in attention paid to documentary issues (historical,
theoretical, and/or aesthetic). Such a
critical mass has been energized by trends within academia (publications and
conferences) as well as without (by virtue of the incorporation of documentary
into countless festival programs, its heightened visibility on television, as
well as the frequency with which nonfiction films gain access to movie theaters). As evidenced by the growing number of panels
addressing documentary issues at the annual SCMS conference, documentary
studies has developed into an increasingly vital arena of academic inquiry, one
that is both trans-disciplinary and transnational in character.
In short, the establishment of a Documentary Studies
Interest Group within the Society for Cinema and Media Studies is an inductive
response to the proliferation of panels and workshops addressing documentary
issues in the context of film and media studies.
Broad theoretical and practical concerns with the
registration of reality in the moving image have been a staple of film studies
and often – whether explicitly or implicitly – dovetail with documentary
concerns. Furthermore, concerns with the
"document” and questions of the real have also been central to the fields of
television studies and digital media. Considering
both the increase of interest among SCMS membership as well as the ease with
which documentary can be situated within media studies more broadly, the time
is ripe for the establishment of a documentary studies interest group within
SCMS. Such a move would both formalize
and legitimize documentary issues within media studies more broadly and serve
as a site for SCMS members to mobilize around common interests.
Specifically, the primary mission of the documentary studies
interest group centers on two initiatives:
1) To
provide a forum within SCMS in which documentary scholars can share their
research (ideas and materials) and organize panels/workshops for the annual
conference;
2) To
schedule a yearly meeting at the SCMS conference where we can gather to
formulate more specific programs and plans.
SCMS Documentary
Studies Interest Group – Goals and Objectives
1) To
work with the Executive Committee and each year’s Conference Program Committee
as a source of documentary-related expertise;
2) To
support Cinema Journal and other
publications and to encourage their inclusion of documentary-related
scholarship;
3) To
work in concert with other SCMS groups, such as the various caucuses and
interest groups, and to bring a documentary-specific orientation to such
ongoing SCMS issues as preservation of and access to archival materials,
particularly in light of the need to explore more thoroughly overlooked
ephemeral and orphan films;
4) To
take on special projects, such as specially-designated panels, joint
conferences, plenary participation, or workshops;
5) To
set up a documentary studies website, which can eventually serve as a resource
for documentary scholars;
6) To
encourage international membership and participation in SCMS for documentary
scholars in other countries;
7) To
address and consider persistent ethical problems relating to the representation
of reality, from the vantage points of both scholars and producers;
8) To
explore the definition of documentary studies itself as a field, including the
relationship of documentary to an array of new media technologies; the
interconnections between documentary and experimental media as well as other
hybrid media forms;
9) To
acknowledge and support the important work that is being done in documentary
studies; to work towards establishing relationships with media industry
personnel, critics and reviewers, and policy groups; to work with and address
the concerns of documentary filmmakers.
