Fernando Canet

The aim of this article is to address a transversal topic within perpetrator
studies: how subsequent generations deal with the legacy of
their perpetrator ancestors. To achieve it, we analyse six recent
documentary films, all produced between 2015 and 2018 that
cover four different contexts: Nazi Germany, the Spanish Civil War,
and the Chilean and Argentine dictatorships. Through a comparative
methodological approach, our focus is on finding similarities that
define this global trend through the exploration of two closely
related phenomena: (1) Personal responses and social responsibility
and (2) Family dynamics. One important outcome of this new cinematic
tendency, that we call the ‘post-perpetrator generation documentary
film’, is that by accepting their relatives’ involvement, the
perpetrator’s offspring are able to recover their personal identity, and
also to reintegrate their personal experience into a broader historical
context. Indeed, the social sphere is an important focus in postperpetrator generation documentary films, because a major part of
the perpetrator’s legacy involves social responsibility to the past, but
especially to the future: concern for next generations is the ethical
motivation of the post-perpetrator generation.

This paper aims to address the video as a new scholarly communication form, alternative to the traditional written paper. Although the use of video could be a worthwhile option for any field of study in which videographic practice would facilitate the communication of the research findings and thus enhance our understanding of them, this practice seems especially useful when the object of study itself is the audiovisual language. For this reason and because the number of media scholars communicating their research outputs in videos has increased in recent years to the extent of becoming a new trend, I focus on the exploration of this practice in this discipline. However, could the video meet academic standards, and thus be considered as a new scholarly form? If the answer is affirmative, what exactly makes a video academic? Offering some answers to these questions is the main purpose of this article, which reviews how the transition from the written paper to the audiovisual form is evolving. This exploration will include not only these types of videos but also the online journals that make the publication of such videos possible, thereby facilitating a study of how these online platforms allow new ways of communicating research outputs in academic contexts.

The Chilean dictatorship is the subject of a number of recent non-fiction films in which the construction of Chile’s collective memory also focuses on those who supported, collaborated or participated in the perpetration of the abuses and atrocities committed by the regime. In recent years, a new generation of Chilean filmmakers has emerged; among these are Andrés Lübbert and Lissette Orozco, whose documentary films about the dictatorship, El color del camaleón (‘The color of the chameleon’) and El pacto de Adriana (‘Adriana’s pact’), respectively, were both released in 2017. In both films, the memorialization of Chile’s past is associated with the exploration of family memories as the filmmakers engage with Chile’s collective memory through family relationships. In this way, family becomes central to a parallel process in which the filmmakers engage in an ethical and emotional questioning of their relationships with their relatives and the family legacy, thereby triggering conflict within the family. This family conflict may be resolved in one of two possible ways: breakdown or reconciliation. The two documentary films studied here offer examples of each possibility, facilitating an exploration of this process and the potential impact of this approach to documenting family relationships.

Antihero narratives constitute a common thread in the current boom of TV fiction. The Sopranos (HBO, 1999–2007) could be considered an early example of this tendency. The antihero is a complex character who demands equally complex responses from viewers. The title of this article is an allusion to Rob White’s article, ‘No more therapy’, in which White explores Dr Jennifer Melfi’s role as a narrative mechanism used to undermine viewer sympathy for Tony Soprano at the end of the series. Here I seek to explore this role further since Dr Melfi’s responses to Tony’s actions serve as a narrative strategy used by The Sopranos writers to guide viewer responses in their relationship with Tony Soprano, a pioneer example of the antihero figure. In doing so, it is my purpose to demonstrate the relevance in antihero TV series of the evolution not only of the antihero themselves but also of their relationship with other major characters over the course of the series. I call this evolution, through which the creators develop the transformational arcs of the two characters concerned: the ‘relationship arc’.

Following a century filled with violations of human rights, a significant number of documentary films have appeared since the first decade of the current century that report these events. Traditionally this process is carried out from the victims’ point of view. However, a new tendency has emerged in which the films deal with the perpetrators’ perspective. It is easy to understand how establishing a relationship with a person who has committed atrocities may be problematic. So, why should we engage with perpetrators? The overarching purpose of this article is to attempt to offer some answers to this question. To this end, two methodological approaches are carried out in parallel: first, this article explores a sample of five documentary films and the filmmakers’ considerations of what their engagement with the perpetrators was like. Second, this article reviews the related literature and the controversial reception of these films by some scholars. In doing so, I also posit a theory that 4Rs (remembrance, recognition, remorse, and redemption) are a necessary prerequisite for the fifth R, of reconciliation. The final elaboration of this schema is mainly based on an example of interpersonal reconciliation.

This study is focused on those filmmakers who make films as a way of fighting to defend human rights. I look in particular in this article at their activist role in the process of documenting human rights abuses in contemporary film projects that explore the aftermath of genocide. In Asia, we can find two examples: the anticommunist genocide in Indonesia in 1965–66 and the genocide perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia in 1975–79. Two contemporary filmmakers have produced works that recover the history of the atrocities: Joshua Oppenheimer and Rithy Panh. Traditionally, filmmakers have formed relationships only with victims; however, this article shows how the involvement of the perpetrators is also necessary to fully understand the conflict. This article explores why filmmakers decide to engage with the perpetrators, how they get them to participate, and what the consequences of this process may be. Since Oppenheimer’s involvement with his protagonist, Anwar Congo, in The Act of Killing (2012) turns out especially problematic, exploring this relationship in depth is the central purpose of this article.

The aim of this article is to map a history of reflexive practices in Spanish cinema. To this end, I will explore how Spanish film-makers have expressed their relationship with cinema on screen through their personal reflections. In doing so, I will attempt to answer the following questions: How do Spanish film-makers carry out reflexive practices? What techniques, strategies and resources do they apply to express their personal reflections? What cinematic issues do they draw attention to in their films? I will therefore explore those films that may be considered as representing the different reflexive practices that have characterized Spanish cinema to date. Instead of a superficial analysis of a wide range of practices, I will focus on four specific aspects: (1) reception (‘allegories of spectatorships’); (2) the ‘making-of’ (the other side of the shot); (3) allusions to film history; and, finally, (4) variations and parodic approaches.

The popularization of the antihero is linked to the dramatic and narrative need of seriality: the constant dichotomy between the family and professional spheres, between noble and petty actions, between duty and want, moves the story forward, generates suspense and renews conflicts, prolonging the story for dozens of hours. Vic Mackey (The Shield), Dexter Morgan (Dexter) or Nucky Thompson (Boardwalk Empire) could serve as an antihero example. However, the two most radical and complex cases are undoubtedly the protagonists of The Sopranos (Tony Soprano) and Breaking Bad (Walter White). The emotional affinity with the antihero has recently become the object of study. This paper proposes a new angle of study: the antihero’s relationship with the rest of the characters in the series. For that purpose, we will select the characters - main or secondary - that the writers use as narrative strategy to guide the emotional and moral responses of the spectator the emotional and moral responses of the viewer in their particular relationship with the anti-hero. We will mainly focus on the reactions of these characters to the amoral behaviors of the antiheroes. We propose a methodology of textual analysis that, based on cognitivist theorists, will serve as a mechanism to better understand the construction of the anti-hero and to investigate the effects of authorial decisions on viewers.

The filmmaker’s engagement with the subject was an important element in Robert J. Flaherty’s film documenting the life of Nanook and his family, the legendary Nanook of the North (1922), and of course it continues to be relevant in contemporary documentaries, such as the film Foreign Parts (2010), directed by French director Verena Paravel and US filmmaker J. P. Sniadecki. In these films, the approach to the reality of the subjects is documented from an ethnographic perspective, where the main objective is to examine how they live. To this end, the filmmaker has to spend hours and hours living alongside the subjects, establishing a relationship with them that is documented by the camera. To identify how this translates onto the screen is the main purpose of this article. To do this, I will adopt the approach to character engagement taken by cognitive film theory, since as I want to demonstrate this perspective is very useful for explaining the relationship established between filmmaker and subject in this kind of film. Especially useful to this explanation is the ‘structure of sympathy’ posited by Murray Smith (2004), which involves three concepts: recognition, alignment, and allegiance.

La obra de José Luis Guerin es el pretexto perfecto para abordar la hibridación entre el cine de ficción y el docu-mental. Este tipo de cine, que se encuentra en la frontera entre ambas formas de escritura cinematográfica, está cobrando una gran relevancia en el cine contemporáneo. Esta tendencia no es algo nuevo, sino una rehabilitación de un movimiento que nació con el propio medio y que ha ido alcanzando notoriedad en diferentes momentos de su historia. Asimismo, el estudio de la dialéctica entre la ficción y la realidad ha sido objeto de interés dentro del campo de los estudios fílmicos. En la actualidad está adquiriendo especial relevancia, a la par que está siendo abordada desde diferentes perspectivas. En concreto, en este artículo se estudia el ejercicio práctico del quehacer cinematográfico, centrándose en la relación que el cineasta —en este caso Guerin— establece con la realidad que es objeto de su mirada, y cómo esta se traduce en discurso fílmico como resultado de la combinación entre lo aleatorio y lo controlado a lo largo del proceso creativo. La fricción entre el azar y lo controlado en el cine de José Luis Guerin The work of José Luis Guerin provides the perfect opportunity to address the hybridization between fiction and documentary. This type of film situated on the border between these two cinematic forms is gaining increasing importance in contemporary cinema. This trend is not new but a revival of a movement that began with the medium itself and that has made a significant impact at different times in film history. The examination of the di-alectic between fiction and reality has also long been of interest in the field of film studies, and is acquiring special relevance today, with studies approaching the question from different perspectives. Specifically in this article, this examination is oriented towards the practical exercise of filmmaking, focusing on the relationship between film-maker (in this case Guerin) with the reality that is the object of his gaze, and how this relationship translates into a filmic discourse as a result of the combination of the random and the controlled throughout the creative process. * Este artículo ha sido posible gracias al proyecto del Plan Nacional de I+D+i con el título " Estudio y análisis para el desarrollo de una red de conocimiento sobre estudios fílmicos a través de plataforma Web 2.0 " (HAR2010-18648), financiado por el Ministerio de Economía y Competi-tividad. Asimismo me gustaría agradecer los comentarios hechos tanto por Santos Zunzunegui y Ángel Quintana como por los evaluadores, los cuales han permitido que el artículo haya mejorado notablemente.