Following the Form(less): Exploring the Logic of the Non-narrative in Filming Revolution (2015)

Documentary took some time to embrace the tremendous potential unleashed by the interactivity afforded by Web 2.0, but more than a decade later, it is beginning to find its forms, and one of the pre-eminent forms being promoted, by funders, by developers, by festivals, by theorists, and by makers, is that of ‘digital storytelling’.

While the importance and the attractiveness of storytelling in the interactive realm is undisputed, I would like to introduce an element of dissent, considering what gets lost in the rush to narrative, and to explore the possibilities less well-trodden (and less well-funded) in this area.

Mine will be a two-fold consideration, first of the not always well understood relationship between story and narrative, and second to remind that documentary has long retained the freedom not to tell a story, and the interesting paths it has taken as a result.

Associative rather than narrative logic—something that documentary has always availed itself of––suits the non-linear form even better than its linear counterpart, yet with the drive towards commercial viability, this potential may be getting shorter shrift than it deserves. Not all interactive projects lend themselves to storytelling, and some, like my Filming Revolution, productively resist the compulsion to narrate for reasons as much to do with the politics as the poetics of its subject.