The Use of Metaphor in the Construction of the Representation of Reality with Ethical Principles on the Example of the Movie 'The Well' in Documentary Cinema

Authors : Şenay Tanrivermiş

Pages : 293-309

Doi:10.21600/ijoks.1162561

View : 18 | Download : 7

Publication Date : 2022-08-25

Article Type : Research

Abstract :In the 1990s, Kurds living in Mardin and the surrounding provinces were subjected to various pressures, forced migration, and negative treatment such as village evacuation. Veysi Altay's documentary "Bir" (The Well) tells the story of the disappearance of seven people, three of whom are children after they were detained in the Dargeçit district of Mardin in 1995, and the search for them by their relatives. The fact that the director, who traces the search, focuses on the struggle of the seven relatives instead of drawing attention by implying the Kurdish problem with popular political references, brought the documentary to an objective point. In this study, based on the documentary The Well; Instead of "documentary-reality", which distances reality from fiction as much as possible, the possibilities of shooting a "real documentary" will be analyzed. In this context, the reasons for avoiding the use of metaphor, the director's limitation of his camera, and the relationship of preference with ethics will be included in the analysis. While "The Well” has strong meanings from literature to visual arts, in the narrative it has been transformed into a setting, character, and plot that can be grasped, seen, and recorded in history by conveying the truth to witnesses; in this state, instead of losing its meaning from its "reality", it gained strength by feeding on the richness of fiction, but also gave up on poetic reality or all kinds of abstract meanings. This study will examine the effects of the director's direct involvement in the narrative on ethical values and its contribution to the reality of the film, as well as investigate the limits of the construction of "truth" in the post-truth period with a documentary film. The fact that the director renounces his power over the film and turns into the eye that is "attracted" and "witnessed" from time to time, rather than "shooting" the film, will be examined ethically with the method of discourse analysis. The aim of the study is to present an example of whether the creation of documentary cinema in search of reality and its way of influencing the masses are in conflict with ethical principles.
Keywords : Documentary cinema, cinematic reality, ethics of documentary cinema