Author:

Abstract:

This research follows from some pertinent ecological questions that are being addressed in the arts nowadays. Due to enormous contemporary ecological challenges an increasing focus on the reshaping of the relation between human and themore then human world is noticeable in different disciplines of art. The prevailing rigorous dichotomy between human and non-human, nature and culture is not longer valid. The current ecological crisis asks for new ways of storytelling about how humans relate to the (outside) world. As a documentary essay filmmaker I share these concerns and I engage myself in this eminently transdisciplinary discussion. I want to conduct research to find new story perspectives and techniques that can be used by the essay filmmaker to portray the relation between human and non-human. To find an answer to this question I will search for a new narrative position, a position that manifests itself in the film essay not only as a narrating voice but also shines through in other artistic formal choices ( cinematography, narrative structures, sound, plot… ) . This dissertation is concerned with the making of my film Apple Cider Vinegar(2024) In this PhD thesis, which accompanies the film, I reflect on aesthetic and narrative choices I made while directing Apple Cider Vinegar to depict ecological crises in (documentary) film. I discuss some of the artistic choices that I made for this film that are relevant regarding the research question. These choices are presented and explained in the form of a gloss. A gloss is an annotation to an existing text. The word gloss was first used in 1570 and refers to a note made in the margin, a comment on an already existing text in order to understand it better. The text that my gloss will comment on, is the voice over I have written for Apple Cider Vinegar. The gloss will be full of arrows to thoughts that helped shape the film. I hope that by using this form of a gloss I can give insight into the artistic choices I made in relation to the questions this PhD is asking.