Initiated by filmmaker Raya Martin and critic Antoine Thirion,
UNdocumenta is the catalogue of the eponymous film festival revolving around the lost accounts of
cinema (through material destruction, acts of censorship, political, economic or human contingencies) and condemned histories of nations (by social displacement, cultural annihilation or deliberate disappearance).
Inspired by the works of archivist Paolo Cherchi Usai and anthropologist James C. Scott, UNdocumenta revisits history and cinema through the blind side of their radically excluded material. If history is told by those who left the most traces of their existence, it can learn from paying attention not only to those who were misrepresented, but as well to those who ensured they weren't leaving any traces behind by means of self-destruction or self-erasure.
UNdocumenta is based on orality, performance, and collective experiences—three elements that are likely to emancipate cinema from its industrial and spectacular ends.
Contributions by Mathieu Abonnenc, Enrico Camporesi, Chan Ho-lun Fredie & Cheung Tit Leung, Violet Cho, Eric Choi, Gallien Déjean,
Bertrand Dezoteux, Matthew Flanagan, Chang-Huei Ge, Aaron Hillis, Craig Keller,
Manon Lutanie,
Benoît Maire, Raya Martin, Huang Mei, Pascaline Morincôme,
Maxime Primault, Rachael Rakes,
Clément Rodzielski, Olga Rozenblum, Lou Rozès,
Anne-Françoise Schmid, James C. Scott, Roman Seban, Park Taekyu, Antoine Thirion, Jessey Tsang Tsui-Shan, Rachel Valinsky, Rikun Zhu.
Published following the eponymous festival at the Asia Culture Center-Theater, Gwangju, from April 29 to May 1st, 2016.
