디지털 시대 다큐멘터리의 자기반영성과 윤리적 진실 —애니메이션 다큐멘터리 <바시르와 왈츠를>을 중심으로

Abstract

Waltz with Bashir is rich with the aspects of a documentary, which are undergoing fundamental changes in the era of post-modern digital media. The attempt to create a documentary using animation, a medium with simulacra aspect, is filled with efforts to deconstruct the concept of reality while offering it the chance to take a deep dive into itself as a genre. Waltz with Bashir presents hallucination and distorted memories in surreal images of animation to delve into the inner truth that exists underneath the surface of reality. In addition, it actively interacts with interviewees and intentionally uses subjective shots to subvert typical practices in documentary production thereby highlighting the process of uncovering the truth. Through such an undertaking, Waltz with Bashir questions the identity of documentary as a genre and its social responsibility in the era in which we witness the erosion of recreated reality and the myth of objectiveness. Waltz with Bashir reveals a new possibility as it overcomes the regressive fixation of superficial reality in documentary while not falling into cynicism or relativism. However, it confines itself to a sense of guilt felt by perpetrators and individual’s self-reflection in delivering Sabra-Shatila Massacre. Such a limit ironically confirms the fact that even interactive and reflexive documentaries devoid of the voice of the authority cannot be politically neutral or de-political.