Observational Film: Administration of Social Reality

A study of work by female filmmakers from roughly 2000-2010; a typology of their work as 'observational film'; a discussion of their bent towards picturing administration and intervening in social reality.

Abstract:
This article identifies a mode of observational film-making among female artists such as Megan Fraser, Beatrice Gibson, Anna Lucas, Rosalind Nashashibi, Elizabeth Price and Emily Wardill, and situates it both formally and historically, in relation to its mode of montaged construction and its relative downplaying of the importance of medium and installation. It argues that through this approach to the moving image, these artists are attempting to understand filming as an act within a social field, for which the act of filming is more important than the act of display. Secondly, it seeks to show that their work bears a consistent fascination with systems and with the materialization of administration, mirroring their understanding of identity and gender as relational rather than static constructs.

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