Expanded Documentary: The Aesthetics of Pleasure

In this article I make the claim that aesthetic strategies associated with the Modernist avant-garde can provide a tangible source of entertainment for audiences. I contextualize this through Keith Beattie’s concept of “documentary display”. I use the film work of others, as well as my own documentary practice, to illustrate this. In doing this, I offer an explanation of my intentions as a filmmaker in order to show how I aim to engage audiences in particular ways through the adoption of certain aesthetic approaches to documentary filmmaking. I also discuss my own concept of ‘expanded documentary’ in order to explain how alternative forms of exhibition, as well as specific aesthetic approaches to filmmaking, can be seen as having the principle of entertainment at documentary’s core. I build on Gene Youngblood’s work on “expanded cinema” and again use the work of others, as well as my own film practice, to illustrate this.