Presenting the Testimonial in Multimedia Documentaries

This paper looks at two multi-media documentary projects one in Portugal and the other a developing work in Malaysia. It will look at relationship of the documentary to the bearing witness of the subject. Form the will look at the ethical underpinnings of this. From there we will look at how this ethical relationship between the subject bearing witness and the audience changes into a new form within the installation. We will see how the new form of installation documentary is based on an idea of presence and how that leads to the work bringing forward a relationship of the viewer to the witness as a one ethical responsibility to the other. From there we will look at two examples of installation documentaries one completed in Lisbon in 2022 and the other in Sarawak, Malaysia is an ongoing project to see how these considerations are used to design new works.

In looking at these two projects we will see concepts of direct testimonial found in documentary come into direct conflict with the interviewees sense of governmental repercussions. We will ask if it is possible to create a documentary work that has a greater sense of presence while having to face the need of anonymity by interviewees. From this we will draw some conclusions and look forward to how this experience can help in future works.