The Documentary Thought of Grierson in the Context of the Ontic and Ontological Cover Image

Ontik Olan ile Ontolojik Olan Bağlamında Grierson’un Belgesel Düşüncesi
The Documentary Thought of Grierson in the Context of the Ontic and Ontological

Author(s): Faik Onur Acar
Subject(s): Aesthetics, Film / Cinema / Cinematography, Ontology, History of Art
Published by: Serdar Öztürk
Keywords: Documentary; Ontic; Ontological; Being; Time;

Summary/Abstract: Although the documentary has varied massively in the past decades, almost a century-old definition of “creative treatment of actuality” by John Grierson is still quite valid and explanatory. From the moment documentary has emerged, it has not detached itself from actuality and the existents as well as not avoided narrating a story and a meaning about existence on the base of a certain apprehension of Being. In this regard, the documentary contains an ontic basis due to its (document per se) content, and on the other hand, it indicates an ontological understanding as a manifestation of human being who actualizes a creation. In this research, the documentary is considered as temporality which is a form of human existence that is defined by “has been” and “present at hand” and exists by projecting itself. This creation is the authentic state of Dasein which is openness to Being, resulting in the truth. The truth, which determines the validity of meaning, should be extracted from the existing. In this manner, we find ourselves once again on the ontic basis in other words, among existence. Hereby, this article has two different but related objectives. Firstly, (1) Grierson’s documentary thought will be considered as an authentic state of a human being that has an ontic-ontological determination to open himself/herself to Being in the Heideggerian sense. On this basis (2) it will be emphasized that the truth and the meaning emerging within the documentaries in temporality should be analyzed as an end of the documentary’s own ongoing oscillation in between ontic and ontological.

  • Issue Year: 7/2022
  • Issue No: Sp. Iss.
  • Page Range: 106-123
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: Turkish