It’s About Time

Begun as a talk at a film festival, this article explores the experience of time in documentary films as a neglected phenomenon. Here, now, we witness what happened there, then as if it were recurring. We know very well it differs as play differs from fighting, but all the same we allow that difference to collapse to entertain a fantasy of synchronicity. The experience of past time and present time creates a vector that implies future possibilities as a product of the filmmaker’s voice speaking to us and posing a representation of what has come to pass as foreshadowing of what has yet to come. Though prevalent in documentary, indexicality is not essential to this temporal experience. Generative artificial intelligence does not, therefore, mark the end of documentary. It must, however, be acknowledged and recognized for what it is if we are not to be deceived.