"For America to Rise It's a Matter of Black Lives / And We Gonna Free Them, So We Can Free Us": 13th and Social Justice Documentaries in the Age of "Fake News"

Pacific Coast Philology Pub Date : 2019-11-13 DOI:10.5325/pacicoasphil.54.2.0220

D. Dietrich

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引用次数: 1

Abstract

Abstract:Given that documentary methodologies are situated within a digital media ecology today, this article considers the ramifications of social justice films that purport to establish emancipatory truth claims in an era of "fake news." In addition to treating documentary filmmaking as a methodology, rather than a discrete film genre, this article demonstrates the ways in which participatory media culture is reshaping what gets defined as "truth" and how it is achieved. Looking specifically at racial justice themes in Ava DuVernay's 13th, this article observes how documentary rhetorics are part of a larger media ecology that includes Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Perhaps a defining feature of our cultural moment--at the same time that there is great suspicion regarding the relationship of images to "truth," there is also a great need and desire to establish non-racist narratives to counter the hegemonic historiography that passes for the "real" in U.S. culture. This article demonstrates how social justice documentarians are stepping up to the challenge.

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“美国的崛起关乎黑人的生命/我们要解放他们，这样我们才能解放我们”：“假新闻”时代的第13部和社会正义纪录片

摘要:鉴于纪录片方法论处于当今的数字媒体生态中，本文考虑了旨在在“假新闻”时代建立解放真理主张的社会正义电影的后果。除了将纪录片制作视为一种方法论，而不是一种独立的电影类型之外，本文还展示了参与式媒体文化如何重塑“真相”的定义以及如何实现“真相”。本文特别关注Ava DuVernay的《第13篇》中的种族正义主题，观察了纪录片修辞如何成为包括Twitter、Facebook、YouTube和Instagram在内的更大媒体生态的一部分。也许这是我们文化时刻的一个决定性特征——与此同时，人们对图像与“真相”的关系存在极大的怀疑，人们也非常需要和渴望建立非种族主义的叙事，以对抗美国文化中被视为“真实”的霸权史学。这篇文章展示了社会正义纪录片是如何直面挑战的。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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Pacific Coast Philology LITERATURE-

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期刊介绍： Pacific Coast Philology publishes peer-reviewed essays of interest to scholars in the classical and modern languages, literatures, and cultures. The journal publishes two annual issues (one regular and one special issue), which normally contain articles and book reviews, as well as the presidential address, forum, and plenary speech from the preceding year''s conference. Pacific Coast Philology is the official journal of the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association, a regional branch of the Modern Language Association. PAMLA is dedicated to the advancement and diffusion of knowledge of ancient and modern languages and literatures. Anyone interested in languages and literary studies may become a member. Please visit their website for more information.