What does it mean to document—the world, an atrocity, a people, or way of life? Can the documentary artifact ever lead, as Susan Sontag asked of photographs, to “ethical or political knowledge”? This week’s reading list collects some of our best writing weighing in on the question, covering multiple genres—including film, photography, and comics, which novelist Elizabeth Hand argues may gain appeal as a documentary form at a time “when doctored photos teach us to be skeptical viewers.”
In a pair of interviews, prolific and acclaimed documentarians Frederick Wiseman and Errol Morris—both with Boston-area roots—discuss their work, cinéma vérité, and the stakes of understanding their subjects. Historian and Thelonious Monk biographer Robin D. G. Kelley unpacks the significance of a recent documentary’s exposé of outtakes from one of Monk’s performances in Paris.
Plus, political theorist and organizer Mie Inouye shows what American Revolution 2, a documentary about the 1968 Democratic National Convention featuring Illinois Black Panther Party section leader Bob Lee, still has to teach us about building effective social movements. Susie Linfield and Ariella Azoulay examine photographs of the Holocaust and the destruction of Gaza. And more.
