Within South Korean society, living alone has long been stigmatized due to the prevalence of normative beliefs about the family and the life course. However, after the IMF crisis of 1997, social...Show moreWithin South Korean society, living alone has long been stigmatized due to the prevalence of normative beliefs about the family and the life course. However, after the IMF crisis of 1997, social structural issues led to a rapid increase in young people living alone. Despite this social change, the stereotype that people living alone are abnormal or incomplete continues to persist. This thesis looks at representations of young single-person households in South Korean documentaries broadcasted between 2020-2023. The most notable findings are that documentaries by the broadcaster KBS reinforce traditional family ideology or only subtly challenge it, whereas documentaries by the broadcaster MBC actively and directly challenge traditional family ideology. The documentaries of both broadcasters are unbalanced: the documentaries focus either on negative experiences of living alone or on positive experiences of living alone. Documentaries that focus on the latter are more likely to challenge traditional family ideology. Moreover, young single-person households in the Seoul Metropolitan Area, low-income young single-person households in difficult circumstances and young single-person households who live in ‘special’ co-living or communal housing are overrepresented.Show less
Discussing the work of Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda in After Life (1998), Nobody Knows (2004), and, most importantly, Shoplifters (2018), this thesis aims to expand on the way the hybrid...Show moreDiscussing the work of Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda in After Life (1998), Nobody Knows (2004), and, most importantly, Shoplifters (2018), this thesis aims to expand on the way the hybrid documentary genre is defined by contemporary academic literature. Furthermore, it offers a different perspective on the lens through which we view Kore-eda’s recent filmography.Show less
This thesis investigates hybrid documentary-fiction films that were constructed through a close collaboration between the filmmakers and the subjects, and in which the subjects’ personal...Show moreThis thesis investigates hybrid documentary-fiction films that were constructed through a close collaboration between the filmmakers and the subjects, and in which the subjects’ personal experiences and ideas about self-representation influenced both the content and the form of the film. The objective of the filmmakers is to raise questions about how to understand somebody else’s experiences, what it means to insert oneself as a filmmaker into the lives of others and how to make the spectator aware of these issues. They do so by using formal methods that are usually associated with fiction filmmaking and by foregrounding the film’s construction. Since the filmmakers do not offer a conclusive perspective on the story or an interpretation of the images, the spectator is made to invest his or her own experiences, which are equally valuable as those of the filmmakers and the subjects of the films. Taking Jacques Rancière’s emancipated spectatorship as a guideline, I will investigate which formal methods associated with fiction filmmaking can employed to activate the spectator, how, and to what effect. I have divided my thesis into three chapters that each treats a specific formal method: identification through ambiguous focalisation; the uncertain relation between voice, text, and image; and database logic as an alternative to narrative logic.Show less
In 2015 Russian director Vitaly Mansky’s documentary film Under the Sun was released. Under the Sun was supposed to be a ‘joint venture’ between the Russian director Vitaly Mansky and North Korea’s...Show moreIn 2015 Russian director Vitaly Mansky’s documentary film Under the Sun was released. Under the Sun was supposed to be a ‘joint venture’ between the Russian director Vitaly Mansky and North Korea’s Ministry of Culture represented by the DPRK’s Korea Film Export and Import Corporation, a production company that is credited in the beginning of the film. However, according to Mansky, the contract stated that “every single detail had to be approved by North Korea’s Ministry of Culture.” These details that needed to be approved ranged from decisions made about the script to the kind of cameras Mansky was allowed to use. Mansky, who was “used to having complete creative freedom”, seems to have had problems with this working relationship. Thus Mansky went around the North Korean authorities’ rules to create his documentary film. Mansky says he let the cameras roll all the time, and duplicated his video cards before they were given to the some unspecified North Koreans –Mansky says he did not know who they were- who reviewed Mansky’s footage and had to approve it. The film seems to have been disapproved by North Korea long before the finished product hit theatres. The contract between Mansky and North Korea’s Ministry of Culture was broken in 2014, when Mansky’s access to North Korea was shut down, as well as any communication from his ‘partners’ in North Korea. The film also brought up the topic of safety for those involved. The question was whether people would face repercussions for being linked to Under the Sun. In an interview with The Guardian Mansky says that the Russian Federation wanted to have its name removed from the film’s credits, claiming that they were scared because they “lied to our North Korean partners”, but also because they were afraid of what would happen to the North Koreans who are seen in the film. In that same interview Mansky said he excluded some footage that might have had negative repercussions for the family that is followed in the film. Mansky’s Under the Sun has strayed away from whatever form the initial project was meant to have. Instead of being a ‘joint venture’ Under the Sun is a production made by Vitaly Mansky and it is he who has created the story. In that way it is a Vitaly Mansky documentary film, and not a North Korean documentary film. Moreover, Under the Sun should not be read as a North Korean propaganda piece, but rather a visual document that explores North Korean propaganda. Under the Sun inherently concerns itself with the topic of propaganda; Mansky makes use of a contrast between what is ‘reality’ and what is ‘fabricated’. How does Mansky’s treatment of the topic of propaganda in Under the Sun portray North Korea? This thesis will argue that in Under the Sun Mansky tries to point out and dissolve North Korea’s visual propaganda to emphasize the misery of citizens in the North Korean system, as well as emphasize the cruelty of North Korea as a totalitarian state.Show less
The purpose of this research is to show how Asian countries appear to be aestheticized in documentary photographs, often considered as reliable evidence of reality, and to understand to what extent...Show moreThe purpose of this research is to show how Asian countries appear to be aestheticized in documentary photographs, often considered as reliable evidence of reality, and to understand to what extent this is influencing the knowledge “Western” countries have on Asia. Starting from the analysis of current theories on photography and art, I will see how they can be applied to documentary photography, regarded as a practice that only aims at informing the public. Then, tracing back to colonial photography, I will show how documentary photography appears to present an aesthetic of its own, which has had a fundamental role in the structuring and circulation of fantasies, sentiments and ideas between “Western” countries and Asia. Besides, I will determine to what extent this aestheticization of Asian countries has been fostered by contemporary magazines, such as National Geographic. Finally, through the analysis of some of the most iconic images by the documentary photographer Steve McCurry, I wish to show how in the name of artistry, the documentary practice is failing in providing the viewer with visual documents.Show less
Documentaries have a history of being the mouthpiece of the Chinese government; an important medium to present a good image of the country. The Party knows that at the same time a critical...Show moreDocumentaries have a history of being the mouthpiece of the Chinese government; an important medium to present a good image of the country. The Party knows that at the same time a critical documentary can do harm. Nevertheless, especially economic reasons have made the government less rigid on documentary making—the times that the only documentaries in the country were pure Party propaganda is over. Internet has been another influence that weakened Party control. Crowdfunding gives the crowd the possibility to gather together, share ideas and financially support the creation of products. Although through crowdfunding of documentaries a different voice can be heard, the existence of these websites does of course not mean the disappearance of censorship. Therefore we cannot expect a big shift in the democratic potential of documentaries just because of the better possibilities for active audience participation through crowdfunding. Research on recent prohibited documentaries showed most of the banned documentaries regard suppression by the government of citizen rights: the government wants to prevent an upsurge of social tensions. The fact that the documentaries of the case study that address social issues are allowed to be shown across the country backs this. Crowdfunding in China thus does offer more people the opportunity to voice their opinion through documentaries, also critical opinions, but it does not increase the democratic potential in Chinese documentary art.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
open access
In a world of aging, dementia becomes a more and more common disease. Step by step, this disease unravels someone's personality, with consequences for his/her personhood. By following four guests...Show moreIn a world of aging, dementia becomes a more and more common disease. Step by step, this disease unravels someone's personality, with consequences for his/her personhood. By following four guests of the caring home the Herbergier in Arnhem, we will discover the many effects this has on the person him/herself and his/her social environment.Show less
