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So I Know it’s Real: an embodied understanding of performative authenticity

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So I Know it’s Real: an embodied understanding of performative authenticity

Mendenhall, Grace (2022) So I Know it’s Real: an embodied understanding of performative authenticity. Masters thesis, Concordia University.

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Abstract

Through a series of performative documentary video works that interweave self-shot footage with found interviews in an approach informed by theories of chance and embodiment, this creation-as-research project explores ‘authenticity’ as a condition of labour in the production of pornography. In order to trouble the understanding of authentic porn as ethical porn and, further, the notion that there is a single ‘truth’ to sex work at all, I draw on a practice established by transgressive feminist documentarians and video artists of radical subjectivity as a tool of resistance. Through a process-driven recontextualization of audio and video in the style of assemblage, the nonfiction pieces produced in this thesis tell a nuanced story – not only of sex as work, but of the practice and potential of ‘embodied editing’ towards the advancement of ‘radically subjective’ documentary film.

Divisions:Concordia University > Faculty of Arts and Science > Communication Studies
Item Type:Thesis (Masters)
Authors:Mendenhall, Grace
Institution:Concordia University
Degree Name:M.A.
Program:Media Studies
Date:1 March 2022
Thesis Supervisor(s):Miller, Elizabeth
Keywords:authenticity, pornography, performance, embodiment, documentary film, video art, creation-as-research
ID Code:990357
Deposited By: Grace Mendenhall
Deposited On:16 Jun 2022 14:52
Last Modified:16 Jun 2022 14:52
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