Immediations: The Humanitarian Impulse in Documentary by Pooja Rangan (review)

Immediations: The Humanitarian Impulse in Documentary by Pooja Rangan deals with ethics of the video documentary genre. This discussion in video is inherited from photography, where one of the largest critics of the documentary drive in contemporary visual culture was Susan Sontag. Like Sontag, Rangan also positions dehumanized life as raison d'être of the documentary genre but continues her discussion with the in-depth analysis of so-called participatory video, in which cameras are supplied to populations suffering or whose lives are at risk. In doing so, Rangan addresses a number of cultural theories, such as Foucault's biopolitics, Negri and Hardt's human rights, but also Butler's gender.

The book provides a number of in-depth analyzed case studies showing up the problematic of film-based philanthropy organized around symbols of weakness such as the child, weather catastrophe victim, autistic person and animal.

The first chapter covers the history of a child as a target of a humanitarian drive, especially the idea of the wild child (savage) and the instrumentality of such an image. These images work on a projective identification model. The key example is the participatory project Born into Brothels by Zana Briski and Rose Kauffman (2004), in which the artist lent cameras to children employed in brothels so they could produce autobiographic narratives on their own prostitution. Although the financial product now goes to children, the idea of child labor and the sensationalism of the image of the child in an utterly pedophile market of child images comes to the forefront. Also in other, similar projects, such as ZoomUganda (2006) by Harambee Center, or Through Our Own Eyes (2010) by Plan International on street children in Bangladesh, or Charleston Kids with Cameras (2003), or Girl Project (2007) by Kate Engelbrecht, similar outcomes are reached.

The second chapter deals with natural disasters reported by participatory cameras and provides even more of interesting cases, for example, Télé Geto following earthquake damage on Haiti in 2010. Teenagers holding toy tools for reporting, such as plastic bottles combined with duct tape, ironically mimicked global TV media in a series of YouTube videos. Another case covered is a CNN call for images from its own audience during the time of Hurricane Katrina (2005) as seen in the Academy- and Emmy-nominated Trouble the Water (2008), directed by Tia Lessin and Carl Deal. Examples elaborated in the third chapter deal with the issue of autism, including I Am Autism by Autism Speaks; In My Language, a 2015 video by autistic blogger Amanda Baggs; and Gerardine Wurzburg's award-nominated Autism in the World (2003). The last chapter elaborates on animals.

Rangan distinguishes a couple of subgenres of the participatory documentary, such as auto-ethnographic film, especially characteristic of 1970s feminist video art, but also provides a clear distinction from the pseudo-participatory genre.

Obviously a great compendium of contemporary documentaries, some of which are fully available online, Rangan's book is a good informative reading in the domain of humanitarian documentary genre. It is a good critical source for both authors and activists, but also for readers in cultural and film studies interested into ethical perspectives. Still, when reading, make sure to be close to the Internet, so you can look up works Rangan writes about.