The Geo-Doc: Remediating the Documentary Film as an Instrument of Social Change with Locative Theory and Technology

The documentary film has had a long history as an influential communications tool with the ability to effect social change. Its inherent claims to representing the truth provide a foundation of credibility that the filmmaker uses to inform and persuade their audience with a goal of causing them to take action that ideally leads to social change. This goal has been seen to be achieved when the documentary film employs certain methods and technologies. My research questions are these: What methods and technologies are most effective in bolstering the documentary films ability to effect social change and what new and emerging methods and technologies extend that ability? How can the documentary film be remediated to incorporate these attributes and would this new project experience some measure of success in effecting social change when tested in the field? These questions are answered through an investigation of various disciplines of study. The history of the documentary film as an instrument of social change is examined from its origins to the present day. This examination also identifies those methods and technologies that have advanced the documentarys ability to serve as a successful communication tool between filmmaker and changemaker. Focussed investigations into the theory and practice of the documentary film yield specific approaches and techniques that prove to be most successful, such as the Participatory Mode, Ecocinema and Semiotic Storytelling, the Multilinear and the Database Documentary, and the distinct digital affordances provided by Geomedia. Once identified and explained, the most effective theories and practices are combined in an altogether new and remediated documentary form: the geo-doc. The geo-doc is a term I have applied to a structure of the documentary film that is a multilinear, interactive, database documentary film project presented on a platform of a Geographic Information System map. The project was made specifically for an audience of changemakers with the general public in mind as a secondary audience. In collaboration with the changemaker, content and interface suggestions are made to the filmmaker to augment the projects effectiveness as a communications tool.