Ithaca College

 Patricia Zimmermann, Professor of Screen Studies and Codirector of the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival, presented two papers on documentary theory at the Visible Evidence Conference on Documentary at Montana State University  in Bozeman, Montana.

Her paper “Towards a Theory of Participatory New Media Documentary” argued that new media participatory practices emerge out of longer global  histories of collaborative and community-based practices in documentary.  The paper also argued that participatory new media documentary, due to its place-based, iterative, and multiple formations, requires a shift in documentary theory away from close textual analysis towards historical and political contexts as well as open design.

Her second presentation was presented on an invited workshop entitled “Teaching Documentary Studies: Discipline, Canon, History,” that gathered together senior scholars in the field to probe the challenges of pedagogy.  Her paper, “Historiographies Across Platforms,” made the case for moving documentary teaching towards a consideration of historical context, political economies, and multiple platforms, with the goal of changing the vectors of  towards more international and multicultural content.

Visible Evidence, the international conference on documentary film and media, now in its 23rd year, convened August 11-14, 2016 in Bozeman, MT. Hosted by the School of Film and Photography at Montana State University, Visible Evidence XXIII addressed the history, theory, and practice of documentary and non-fiction cinema, television, video, audio recording, digital media, photography, and performance, in a wide range of panels, workshops, plenary sessions, screenings, and special events. Drawing inspiration from its Montana setting, it challenge participants to think about new frontiers in documentary theory and practice.