Afterword

Whilst making a significant contribution to public visual culture and narrative formation, documentary filmmakers hold the key to our understanding of independence, occupying the position of agent and subject, whose position can be understood primarily by examining responses to narrow definitions of ‘function’ that have plagued documentary film and filmmakers. Where ‘function’ carries meanings that harness images and image-makers to measurable phenomena of profit-making, institutional communication, consumption or mass persuasion, independent documentary works to challenge the teleological meaning of ‘function’ and its use as a yardstick to evaluate the value and legitimacy of cultural production and cultural producers.