What is it about?
Ehrlich's book discusses the increasingly dominant role of animation both in games & data visualization and in documentaries. I appreciate her insights about the former, and have serious problems with her views on (animated) documentary.
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Photo by Senad Palic on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Animation is no longer a medium primarily suitable for kids -- if it ever was. Animation is a major medium in both fictional and non--fictional contexts. Its role in non-fiction contexts, specifically, needs to be carefully evaluated as, by definition, animation has no direct visual link to a pro-filmic reality. So can it nonetheless make reliable claims about reality --- and if so, how?
Perspectives
My main worry about the book is its author's seemingly unproblematic use of the concept of "post-truth" in the context of documentary. As somebody teaching and writing on documentary -- and as a citizen of the world -- I cannot accept this concept, which I consider a threat to civilized society.
Dr Charles Forceville
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Animating Truth: Documentary and Visual Culture in the 21st Century, Leonardo, January 2022, The MIT Press,
DOI: 10.1162/leon_r_02170.
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