[SydPhil] Cinematic Ethics 3 Workshop: Documentary Film and Ethical Experience, Macquarie Uni, May 18-19

[Robert Sinnerbrink]

Cinematic Ethics 3: Documentary/Non-Fiction Film and Ethical Experience

Two Day Workshop/Symposium, Thursday May 18 & Friday May 19, 2017

MGSM Conference Centre <https://www.executivecentres.mgsm.edu.au/macquarie-park/location>
Macquarie University <http://www.mq.edu.au/about/contacts-and-maps/maps>, North Ryde, Sydney

Despite the flourishing of work in recent decades on the intersection between film and philosophy, contemporary theorists have focused mostly on varieties of fictional narrative film. Less attention has been paid to one of the most creative and dynamic areas of global cinema: documentary and non-fictional film.

This workshop, the third organised by Dr Robert Sinnerbrink as part of his ARC Future Fellowship project (‘Cinematic Ethics: Exploring Ethical Experience through Film’), is dedicated to exploring the intersection of ethics and documentary, examining how documentary raises and examines important ethical questions and political problems through creative forms of filmmaking. Moving beyond documentary theory’s traditional focus on ethical issues pertaining to film production, practice, and reception, the participants in this workshop aim to explore the ways in which contemporary documentary and non-fiction film can use all the potentials of the cinematic medium to elicit complex forms of moral-ethical experience. Documentary, we aim to show, can thereby open up powerful new ways of thinking through the idea of cinema as ethics.

The workshop will preceded (on Wednesday May 17) by a screening plus panel discussion of Kathryn Millard’s award-winning documentary, Shock Room<http://shockroomfilm.com/>, a critical examination of the famous Milgram psychological experiments, showing how they are more dubious than we think (we're not as blindly obedient to authority and willing to inflict pain on others as the experiment suggested). Filmmaker and academic Kathryn Millard will present on the film during the workshop itself.

Invited Speakers:

Libby Saxton (Queen Mary University London), ‘The Face of the Crowd: Iconic Photographs and Documentary Ethics’
Thomas E. Wartenberg (Mt Holyoke College), ‘Can Documentaries Reelise Philosophy? The Act of Killing and the Banality of Evil’
Mathew Abbott (Federation University), ‘Authenticity and Objectivity in Grey Gardens: Notes on the Ethics of Observational Documentary’
Ilona Hongisto (Macquarie), ‘Documentary and the ethics of sustainability’
Robert Blanchet (University of Zurich/Macquarie), ‘Wrong but understandable: Empathizing with fictional and documentary characters on the level of action and motivation’
Kathryn Millard (Macquarie), ‘Documentary Re-Enactment; Aesthetics and Ethics’
Susan Potter (Uni of Sydney), ‘Bill Cunningham New York: A Private Life’
Robert Sinnerbrink (Macquarie), ‘The Act of Witnessing: Cinematic Ethics in The Look of Silence’
Belinda Smaill (Monash), ‘Refiguring the Human in Documentary’s Ethical Encounter: Animals, the Anthropocene and the Non-fiction Moving Image’

All welcome but please email robert.sinnerbrink at mq.edu.au if you are interested in attending.






Dr Robert Sinnerbrink

Senior Lecturer & Australian Research Council Future Fellow


Department of Philosophy  |   Level 7, W6A Building
Balaclava Rd
Macquarie University, NSW 2109, Australia


T: +61 2 9850 9935  |  F: +61 2 9850 8892 | robert.sinnerbrink at mq.edu.au<mailto:robert.sinnerbrink at mq.edu.au>


Staff Profile<http://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/faculties_and_departments/faculty_of_arts/department_of_philosophy/staff/robert_sinnerbrink>

Academia Page<https://mq.academia.edu/RobertSinnerbrink>

New Book: Cinematic Ethics<https://www.routledge.com/products/9781138826168>


[Macquarie University]<http://mq.edu.au/>

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