This should be the place. Re-mapping traumascape in the post-traumatic contemporary documentaries

DOI: https://doi.org/10.6093/sigma.v0i5.8761
Keywords: trauma, landscape, memory, documentary cinema

Abstract

The concept of trauma, in its historical or personal declination, has now assumed a central role in contemporary documentary cinema, which is not simply aimed at the mere representation of the event but it becomes an epistemological tool in order to orient memory and re-elaboration processes. Post-traumatic documentary cinema reflects on the relationship between historical trauma and the forms for representing it. The present contribution aims to explore a key aspect concerning re-enacting trauma in contemporary documentary cinema, namely the relationship between space, event and memory. Specifically, I will examine Nostalgia de la luz (Nostalgia for the Light, Guzmán 2010), Dubina dva (Depth Two, Glavonic 2016) and Le dernier des injustes (The Last of the Unjust, Lanzmann 2013), films that reconfigure the landscape, rediscovering the traumatic traces, even if they are invisible apparently, in spaces haunted by the ghosts of the past.

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Author Biography

Samuel Antichi, Sapienza University of Rome

Samuel Antichi is a research fellow at Sapienza University of Rome, he published his doctoral thesis as monograph: The Black Hole of Meaning. Ri-mettere in scena il trauma nel cinema documentario, (Bulzoni, 2020). He wrote papers in Italian academic journals as «La Valle dell’Eden», «Fata Morgana», «Imago», «Immagine», «Schermi», «Cinergie», «Piano B», «H-ermes», and he attended several national and international conferences. Currently, he is working on the research project Romarcord - A Social History of Moviegoing in Rome (1945-1975).

Published
2021-12-20
How to Cite
AntichiS. (2021). This should be the place. Re-mapping traumascape in the post-traumatic contemporary documentaries. SigMa - Rivista Di Letterature Comparate, Teatro E Arti Dello Spettacolo, (5), 215-230. https://doi.org/10.6093/sigma.v0i5.8761
Issue
No 5 (2021): Historical event, collective trauma and spatiality in contemporary literature and arts
Section
Sezione monografica

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