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(2014) Ethics and the arts, Dordrecht, Springer.
The aim of this chapter is to describe how the visual narrative, more specifically the ethnographic documentary, can be an instrument of ethical approach to social questions relating to issues where there is a strong moral prejudice, as is the case of madness and crime. The images do not have the power to change reality or to directly alter oppressive regimes, but they can become indelible images in the mind of those who watch a film and they offer new understandings of criminal madness, and may (in turn) stimulate political action. The images from this documentary "The House of the Dead" are of unknown men, who do "not exist" in ordinary social life: people without personal bonds or biographies. The documentary brings them "to life" and "re-members' them. I believe that "remembering is an ethical act" of nearing others' pain, afflictions, and sufferings. In the first section of this chapter, I present the film and the main ethical and aesthetic decisions involved in the production of an activist documentary. The section is organised in three acts around three characters, mirroring characters in the poem "The House of the Dead." In the second section, I discuss some characteristics of the activist documentary, especially the ethnographic roots and the concept of a "call for action," and then some of the ethical and political tensions involved in this type of visual narrative. I believe that political documentaries—and art in general—can be tools to improve our sense of humanity in response to pain and human affliction, as the field of the visible and the intelligible is broadened.
Publication details
DOI: 10.1007/978-94-017-8816-8_8
Full citation:
Diniz, D. (2014)., The house of the dead: the ethics and aesthetics of documentary, in P. Macneill (ed.), Ethics and the arts, Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 79-87.
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