Corporeal Presence, Performance and Seriality

Despite the increasing documentary filmmakers’ on-screen presence in their own films, the analysis of their corporeal presence and performance in the documentary genre hasn’t been fully explored yet. Following Plantinga’s (2018) discussion on characterization and character in documentary film, the present article proposes to examine documentary filmmakers’ on-screen presence and performance, making three central assumptions. First, documentary filmmakers’ on-screen presence is a cinematic representation constructed in similar ways to that of other char-acters/subjects participating in the film. Second, documentary filmmakers’ characters are generally shaped and constructed throughout the filmmakers’ careers, much like fiction film stars. Third and last, the salience of filmmakers as characters should be understood as the outcome of major cultural, technological, and economic shifts shaping and affecting the documentary film production patterns and stylistic devices.