On Saturday, March 21, as part of the 11th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival - Images of the 21st Century, a book presentation took place. The book is “The Documentary, Another Reality”, by the University of the Aegean.
The book is a selection of theoretical texts by 15 academics, researchers and film people. Those speaking were the book’s editors and professors at the University of the Aegean Yiannis Skopeteas and Irini Stathi, writers and professors Christos Gousios, Marineta Kaklamanidou and Grigoris Paschalidis.
The speakers noted that a proper bibliography on this subject was lacking, and they decided to concentrate the opinions of documentary theorists in order to begin a dialogue. New media is examined in the book and the different ways of recording reality using new, technologically advanced means and the opportunities arising from their use.
The speakers agreed that the relationship between fiction or a fictional approach to issues concerning new film makers together with the new production techniques are creating a hybrid film genre that is expected to develop further over the next few years.
The use of music and sound in documentaries is also covered in the book, as well as the fact that contemporary documentaries need to be approached differently by theorists, teachers and all those who deal with the genre.
The book is an attempt to open a fertile dialogue between academics and film makers so that better films can be made and so that Greek documentaries can develop further.
