1988 Brian Winston
摘要
The subject of this chapter is the recently deceased British journalist, intellectual, media and technology theorist, film historian, and practitioner in documentary television Brian Norman Winston (1941–2022). “Documentary: I Think We Are in Trouble” was an essay that Winston wrote in 1988 for Rosenthal’s first edition of New Challenges for Documentary. The whimsical title is borrowed from Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin’s final exchange of words at the end of Chronique d’un été (1960). In this chapter Winston defines documentary films as “constructed artifacts.” He posits six arguments to support this definiens. The chapter breaks down all six, arguing and demonstrating how, word by word, premise by premise, Winston presents us with an avid documentarological manifesto, an idiosyncratic Documentary definiens calling unapologetically for committed and humble ethical conduct of the documentarian toward his filmed subjects—a matter always dear to Winston’s heart.