Book Launch: Critical Distance in Documentary Media
Partial book cover of Critical Distance in Documentary Media (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018)
In February 2019, faculty members from the School of Image Arts, Drs. Gerda Cammaer, Blake Fitzpatrick, and Bruno Lessard launched their new book, Critical Distance in Documentary Media (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). This collection features international contributions from both established and emerging scholars, and offers new theoretical perspectives within the field of documentary studies by reflecting on the idea of “critical distance” in a documentary context.
The contributors to this book help us to rethink the futures of documentary theory and practice in the twenty-first century and the discourses that frame them within documentary studies. The book brought together established and emerging scholars and artists in an interdisciplinary investigation of new approaches to documentary that stood at a ‘critical distance’ to the dominant paradigms of documentary theory and practice.
A book launch event co-hosted by the School of Images Arts and the Documentary Media Research Centre was housed in The Catalyst, and guests heard from each of the three co-editors. Danny Fisher (MFA Documentary Media) moderated a short panel discussion before leading into a cheerful reception.
Co-editors of Critical Distance in Documentary Media (Left to right) Drs. Gerda Cammaer, Blake Fitzpatrick, and Bruno Lessard.
We hope that with this book, the reader will join us in questioning the exclusion of certain visual media from the documentary canon and the overreliance on approaches derived from Film Studies, rather than, say, Sociology, Philosophy, Media Studies, or Art Theory.
A display copy of the book is available in the Documentary Media Research Centre’s office in The Catalyst (upon request), or a full copy can be purchased at here (external link) .
For more information, contact:
Documentary Media Research Centre (DMRC)
DMRC@torontomu.ca