Epilogue

Abstract

The oeuvres of David MacDougall, Desire Machine Collective (DMC) and Kumar Shahani establish that the impulse for documentary is not singular and the methods for documentary-making are heterogeneous. They also reflect that documentaries are not passive re-presentations of preconstituted meanings, rationalizations and knowledges. Following their works, we are exposed to how documentary-making provokes affective, perceptual and experiential modes of knowing that deepen our encounter with and understanding of the worlds to which we are exposed. Documentary films can thus be understood as epistemological interventions that create ways of knowing that exceed any disciplinary, political or institutional frameworks and systems of meanings. The documentaries studied in this book are stand-alone interventions in that they are not accompaniments that serve broader political agendas such as awareness creation, as much activist documentary tends to be.