Civic Realism: Documentary and the Unfinished Business of Citizenship

Documentary has played a vital role in promoting interests in social and political issues and active citizenship, at different historical moments. Or so it is claimed. Amid changes in media technologies and their uses including the pressures of popular television programming, and in broader political culture, some see the idea that documentary can engage public interest in questions of citizenship as now being in crisis. This paper argues that documentary can promote the capacity for social participation by the way in which filmmakers manage their relationships with the people they represent and find new ways of appealing to audiences. It illustrates this with reference to the 2008 documentary about the Australian Government's emergency intervention in Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory, Intervention: Katherine, NT, which was made through community collaboration, for mainstream broadcast television. This program shows the ability of documentary to promote networks of relations through which filmmakers, participants and audiences can share interests in dealing with the unfinished business of citizenship.