مهتاب پویامنش

This research intends to analyze the relationship between the methods of representing social reality in documentary theater and its social impact by examining selected dramatic works of this genre. We look into two main things; first, how the methods and techniques of contemporary documentary theater, and specifically the works of Anna Deavere Smith, represent the issue of social justice, and second, how it is possible to suggest a standard criterion to evaluate and produce documentary works and dramas. To answer these, the documentary dramas written by Anna Deavere Smith will be examined as case examples. The analysis will be based on the theoretical approach of Alain Badiou, a contemporary theoretician in the field of philosophy, and ontology, and it is expected that based on the results of this research, the impact of the methods used in documentary theater, to represent the truth can be explained and analyzed. The approach of this research is descriptive, analytical, and interpretative, and the case examples are selected and analyzed, based on their importance and the methods used to represent social realities. By defining and describing documentary theater and its characteristics, this research reflects upon the possibilities of how this genre can represent social issues, using contemporary methods and technologies. In addition, the definition of standards and criteria are evaluated in documentary theater based on the successfulness to achieve the main goal, which is representing the truth. Anna Deavere Smith's works, taking into account the main task of documentary theater, that is the production of truth, has been able to produce truth in a stronger and more effective way based on Alain Badiou's views and his theory on the process of truth-procedure. To sum up, Anna Deavere Smith has successfully used verbatim technique in creating documentary dramatic works, and in providing dualities extracted from Badiou's theory and views. Another result that is observed in the analysis of Anna Deavere Smith's works is that with the passage of time, she has been able to be more successful in creating these dualities in her documentary plays. Therefore, through this study, it is suggested that Smith herself, has something similar to Badiou’s truth-procedure in mind, by using verbatim technique. The power of dualities of form has increased in her works, while the trend in content, has declined; reflective of her priority in writing. In general, Anna Deavere Smith has been more successful in creating a theatrical form of documentary. This research provides a “measurement criteria” to evaluate other documentary dramas, and a framework for making more successful documentary dramas in the future.

The emergence of new approaches to form and content in cinema has led to the creation of diverse and numerous genres and subgenres, which are derived from the combination of primary genres and modes. Additionally, the use of innovative techniques in various stages of film production has occasionally resulted in the formation of hybrid genres and modes, necessitating a deeper analysis and understanding of these cinematic developments. This research aims to examine and analyze such new approaches in cinema by studying and summarizing contemporary theories. Therefore, in order to analyze these methods and new genres, which also exhibit a significant abundance, there is a serious need for more advanced analytical approaches. These approaches should be based on solid foundations, rooted in new theoretical frameworks, and capable of being utilized as a unified theory for film analysis, either in a specific case or in a broader context, to examine genres and subgenres in cinema. Based on this premise, this article focuses on examining and analyzing new domains in contemporary cinema based on Alain Badiou's ontological thought, which is grounded in set theory in mathematics. In the first stage, an attempt is made to elucidate this ontological theory to identify its formation grounds and its points of differentiation from major approaches in contemporary philosophy, and to open up avenues for developing a new approach to film analysis. Next, the structural oppositions in Badiou's theoretical concepts are extracted and classified in the elements of form and content in mockumentary film, in order to observe their impact on the structure of such filmmaking. By examining the theoretical roots of Badiou’s ideas among major contemporary philosophical theories, their origins and differentiations are explored, and a general framework of Badiou’s philosophy is. Then, the fundamental concepts and oppositions in Badiou’s theory are examined in the truth procedure, and their potential for providing an analytical approach to mockumentary filmmaking is investigated. Finally, according to this pattern, four mockumentary films are categorized and analyzed using a descriptive-analytical approach, providing an overall analysis of mockumentary cinema. The results demonstrate that the derived pattern from Badiou’s theory can be effectively employed in the analysis of mockumentary cinema, describing and analyzing the functioning of structural elements in these films through the creation of oppositions and dualities. This approach can also contribute to a better understanding of documentary cinema by analyzing the relationships and oppositions between its elements and the elements of fiction film. Furthermore, it is observed that the dualistic oppositions of reality/truth, art/non-art, and pure/impure in Badiou’s ontological theory in art and cinema can be significant and decisive in the analysis of form and content in mockumentary filmmaking. The dualistic elements present in mockumentary films and the oppositions in these ontological concepts elucidate what is represented in documentary cinema. In conclusion, such an approach can be effective in understanding, describing, and analyzing mockumentary cinema as well as having an impact on documentary filmmaking.

This study concentrates on the form of mockumentary and its relation to its content; focusing on its ability to represent the reality, in order to describe and analyze Mockumentary. In this study, the effect of the medium of cinema, is analyzed on mockumentary films through analyzing four successful mockumentaries, which all had achieved a considerable rating in IMDb and Metacritic. First, mockumentary is introduced and its features are described. Its relation to documentary cinema and fiction cinema is mentioned, their common features are considered and the potential and capacities of this genre are presented. Mockumentary as the name implies, has a very close correlation with documentary. In the first glance, mockumentary seems a copy which tries to get to the place of the reliable non-lying documentary, and waits until the documentary is made and then copies it, but in this research, it is emphasized that there are different philosophical perspectives about the Real and reality and its relation to the Truth, especially in contemporary philosophy. These discussions, challenge the authenticity and factuality of the mockumentary and documentary. According to Alisia Lebow, mockumentary might be the correct or more real form of documentary but through analyzing the theory of Alain Badiou in “Being and Event” we obtain the key concepts in his theory, which combines Set-Theory in mathematics and ontology. He suggests a kind of Meta-ontology based on Set-Theory. According to his definition of the Truth and the Real, and based on this duality (Truth/Real), a fair point for judging mockumentary can be found. Considering the relations and dualities between the key concepts in his ontology, a way of analyzing Mockumentary Cinema in recent years is offered; four successful samples in this genre have been analyzed, and meanwhile, some criteria for evaluating mockumentary films are achieved through them. A descriptive-analytic method is used to develop the argument. Initially, the definitions and presumptions about documentary are considered in order to clarify the different interpretations of this field, and then the different features in the form of mockumentary are studied. In Badiou’s words, Cinema of Mockumentary presents a void, which is an area for event to take place, which is made between documentary and fiction cinema. It is a void representing a lack of form. Mockumentary tries to fill this void by a new combination of fiction and reality. Mockumentary locates itself between documentary and fiction, and with the utilization of the techniques from both of them, makes a rearrangement in the boundaries of the documentary and fiction cinema. This new combination shows a new structure since it brings new dualities with the key concepts which mainly form the fiction cinema and the documentary. It suggests ways for finding better techniques in Documentary Cinema. The correlation between Documentary and Mockumentary, and their mutual influence on each other, results in the enrichment of both. In the present study, a variety of techniques and formal features in mockumentaries are identified through the analysis of four successful case studies.