Respond tot he reading The Uncertainty of Documentarism

Steyerl talks about how the “unbroken belief” of the documentary form is challenged. How are Steyerl’s ideas about truth and fiction represented and expressed in Abbas Kiarostami’s film? How does truth inform the fiction in Close up? How might fiction inform the truth?

  Steyerl talks about how instead of keeping real and trying to capture reality, the documentary becomes more and more abstract. The documentary becomes no longer clear and has a high pixel quality, it becomes blurry and unfocused. Those blurry, unfocused photographs simply convey the passion of the documentarian. The viewer can become more immersed and engaged in these actions. At one point, Kiarostami describes his approach to film as an unintentional form of minimalism. The truth need not come from hard, cold reality because it can also be found in fictitious universes.

What is the significance of the authenticity and representation of the truth in the media that you consume on a daily basis? What is the role of a live broadcast?

  Because nowadays, digital duplication become possible, individuals become more and more uncertain about the information they get from the media. And because there is a huge market and need for information and media, thus people will give up authenticity and the truth, and just to make more profit. We can use authenticity and representation as a tool to help us make unbiased judgments, reduce anxiety about political propaganda, and avoid being overly emotionally influenced by inaccurate information. And because live broadcasts can’t edit, they just record what happened in the reality, thus it has authenticity and representation, they can give people accurate and reliable information, to make people feel secure.