Thomas Wartenberg: Can Documentaries Realize Philosophy? The Act of Killing and the Banality of Evil

The Real of Reality | International Conference on Philosophy and
Film


Wed, 02.11.2016 – Sun, 06.11.2016
ZKM_Media Theater, ZKM_Lecture Hall, ZKM_Media Lounge, ZKM_Cube


The debate about whether films can do philosophy has focused
predominantly on narrative fiction films. In this talk, I
consider documentary as a film genre whose philosophical
significance has been underappreciated. I argue that documentary
films are capable of doing philosophy albeit in a distinctive
manner.


In making my case, I invoke the thesis I put forward in Thinking
On Screen (2007) that films can do philosophy by addressing a
philosophical problem that is also discussed by philosophers. My
example of a film that does this is The Third Man (Reed, 1947)
which, I argue, illustrates and supplements claims made by
Aristotle in regard to the issue of how to dissolve a friendship
ethically. To adapt this account to documentary films, I consider
The Act of Killing (Oppenheimer, 2012). I argue that the film
addresses the issue of how people can perform evil actions, an
issue theorized by Hannah Arendt in Eichmann in Jerusalem (1964)
through the concept of the banality of evil.


The distinctive feature of a documentary film’s philosophical
contribution is that, whereas a fiction film usually does
philosophy by means of a thought experiment, a documentary can
support a thesis by means of providing actual evidence to support
it. In so doing, documentaries rely on film’s distinctive manner
of presenting reality on screen, a feature of film emphasized by
André Bazin and others.


International Conference on Philosophy and Film
Photography and film in particular paved the way for complex
philosophical questions regarding the nature of reality and its
mechanical reproduction. What does film reproduce and how can we
grasp this element, which has the transactive ability to form
reality although originating in reality? This shaping takes palce
through a complex interaction of image, action and narration and
tends to permeate reality completely. It is an inconspicuous
process that already affects our everyday life profoundly and is
based on a revolution of the real. What does film show? Do we
have access to reality that is not based on images or narrations?
And what can film and its analysis contribute to philosophical
debates on the real?
These are questions we are asking to engage in a dialogue between
philosophy and film. For five days, one hundred and fifty
philosophers, media scholars and filmmakers will connect
philosophical theory with cinematic practice and open up new
ideas and concepts. To accompany the program, there will be film
screenings of documentaries of the invited filmmakers.
The participation at the conference is also possible without the
presentation of a paper.
The conference will be held in English.