Abstract: T
his presentation concerns the historically vexed notion of the animated documentary, which Bill Nichols has tangentially addressed from the perspective of documentary theory, focusing on modes of documentary reenactment that introduce a “fantasmatic element” into a form of discourse that conventionally privileges an indexical relationship between an historical event and its cinematic representation. Nichols, however, only briefly considers animated examples of documentary reenactment; in my presentation, therefore, I intend to more extensively apply his argument to the discursive form of the animated documentary, most immediately in relation to the currently reinvigorated discussion of representation, mimesis, and realism in the arts.Biographical statement: Steve Fore works in the School of Creative Media at the City University of Hong Kong, where he teaches in areas of animation studies, culture and technology studies, “new” and “old” media theory and history, surveillance studies, and documentary media. His current research is concerned with the ways in which animation artists have negotiated a relationship with the ongoing technological transformations of their creative form. He is especially interested in current trends involving the use of CG software and hardware, and with certain historical antecedents, including the history and practice of rotoscoping and early experiments with computer graphics.