Bai D. —
Self-formation and hidden aggression: ethical issues in self-therapy documentaries
// Culture and Art. – 2024. – ¹ 7.
– P. 13 - 22.
DOI: 10.7256/2454-0625.2024.7.70752
URL: https://en.e-notabene.ru/camag/article_70752.html
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Abstract: The object of the study is a Chinese documentary about self-therapy. Documentaries about self-therapy have become the main focus of the work of young Chinese documentary filmmakers over the past two years. They often act in front of the audience as victims in the family. Such films are mostly very touching. Directors are often rated as brave and courageous, as they openly talk about their traumatic experiences, directly confront their parents and demand that they admit their mistakes. However, behind all this, serious ethical problems related to the shooting method remain unnoticed. The author analyzes in detail the film "Small Talk", a representative of Chinese documentaries about self—therapy. Special attention is paid to the rhetorical techniques used by director Huang Huidu in the film. The aim of the study is to compare the camera with a tool that promotes communication and self—reflection, rather than with a weapon of violence and self-defense. To study the texture of the film, a strategy of reading with commentary is used, perspectives are involved, knowledge of jurisprudence and psychoanalysis is used to question the authenticity of the first-person narrative, and ethical problems in the director's approach are indicated. The novelty of the research lies in the development of the ethical aspect identified by Paul Arthur in his study of documentaries about self-therapy, namely "murder on screen", which is insufficiently studied in subsequent studies. The study argues that in order to study the ethical aspects of documentaries about self-therapy, it is necessary to analyze the rhetorical actions of the director. Thereby finding out how he hides his aggressiveness. The study found that the director, firstly, creates an image of the victim, thus allowing the audience to listen to his story sympathetically, but ignores the violence to which the mother is subjected during filming, namely: reveals the mother's private life without permission, forcibly forces her to act, deprives her of her voice and distorts her image. Secondly, the director took on the role of an analyst to convince the audience that the film reflects objective facts, not subjective ones. The study convinces that the director's self—medication methods are unscientific, therefore, the cure in the finale of the film is false.
Bai D. —
The development of self-therapeutic documentary films in China
// Man and Culture. – 2024. – ¹ 4.
– P. 76 - 87.
DOI: 10.25136/2409-8744.2024.4.71035
URL: https://en.e-notabene.ru/ca/article_71035.html
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Abstract: This article is devoted to the study of the development of self-therapeutic documentaries in China since 2000. The object of the study is a Chinese documentary about self-therapy. The subject of the research are documentaries about self-therapy in the early 2000s: "More than One is unhappy" (2000), "Home Videotape" (2001), "Nightingale is not the only Voice" (2001), as well as films that appeared after 2016: "Small Talk" (2016), "Minding the Gap" (2017) and "The Lovely Widow and Her Annoying Son" (2019). Special attention is paid to self-therapeutic documentaries presented at the Mother Film Festival and the documentary masterclass FamilyLens, created in China in 2022. The author examines in detail such aspects of the topic as the causes of its occurrence, the definition of the genre and the form of the film text. To understand the trajectory of development of Chinese documentaries about self-therapy, as well as the causes and characteristics of each period, this study uses an integrated approach using content analysis and text analysis, as well as psychoanalytic theory to explain the filming of documentaries about self-therapy. The author argues that the key point in the foundation of the subgenre of documentaries about self-therapy in China is the presence of the director as the main character of the film, filming himself. The study identifies two distinct periods in the development of self-therapeutic documentary films in China, both of which are closely related to the development of film equipment. In conclusion, the author not only evaluates the positive attitude of self-therapeutic documentary practice towards self-awareness and raising public awareness of problems related to the native family, but also argues that researchers should pay more attention to potential ethical problems present in films. This is because, in fact, directors do not heal during filming, but use it as a means of attacking their parents.