Die Gabe und das Bild der Gabe

The Gift and the Image of the Gift. Documentary Aesthetics and Community

Film criticism and film theory usually consider the relationship between the different producing agents of a film as secondary, or, at best, as part of the «little story» of the shooting of the picture. On the contrary, in documentary films, much can be gained if we consider this «little story» more closely, since it can enable us to describe an aesthetic experience that is based on the perception of a figure of, and a desire for, community, both on the side of production and reception. What is at stake then is a common sensibility towards the possibility and the event of a being-together whose movie is the raison as well as the trace. A new paradigm, that of the gift within social relationships, can be introduced in the study of documentary films from a socioaesthetical perspective that will be more attentive to their specificity.