This book studies the relation between documentary film and political violence, treating images not as representations, but as original experiences that are a part of a reality that they both present and shape. Whereas documentary film scholarship has often been preoccupied with questions of the referentiality and representation, Images of Unrest: Documentary Film and Political Violence prioritises the question of what images do. The volume argues that this approach, far from being an abnegation of our responsibility towards the real, heightens the ethical stakes of documentary filmmaking and filmviewing, reminding us that we are always in and of the real.
Formulates a new understanding of political violence by approaching documentary images as original experiences.
