Docufiction: Working with Reality in Contemporary Film

This year, One World festival is introducing fictional films for the first time. However, documentary filmmaking is no stranger to employing fictional principles, just as fictional films draw upon various techniques commonly associated with documentaries.

Whether it’s the repetition and staged presentation of scenes, and "acting"-style work with protagonists in documentaries on one hand, or the utilisation of non-actors, "documentary" camerawork and the manipulation of natural light in fictional narratives on the other, the blending of both genres has been common since the advent of new waves in cinema. Many contemporary “hybrid” films intentionally play with elements from both modes of filmmaking.

What challenges does this hybridity present? How do modern filmmakers approach the presentation of reality? Does it even make sense to continue to put films in traditional categories that may not have been so apt to begin with? These questions will be explored by filmmakers whose works are featured in this year’s festival programme, including Angelos Rallis, director of the hybrid work Mighty Afrin: In the Time of Floods, alongside other experts in the field.