As the concluding programme of the exhibition Trinh T. Minh-ha. Films. (17 October 2020 – 28 February 2021) currently on view at NTU CCA Singapore, this four-part conference brings together scholars and practitioners across filmic, anthropological and curatorial disciplines, addressing notions of multivocality, performativity, and truth in fiction, through Trinh’s practice as a filmmaker and theorist.
As Trinh wrote in her essay “Documentary Is/Not a Name” published in October journal in 1990: “There is no such thing as documentary…The words will not ring true.” Both a response and homage to this provocation, and at once a close but also an opening, the conference extends multiple threads of inquiry beyond the ontological frames presented in Trinh’s films, to further explore the theoretical parallels and proximities between arrangement and composition, territorialisation and deterritorisalisation, that underscore Trinh’s cinematic works.
Bringing other notable filmic works into the discourse kindled by Trinh’s statement, the conference also traces the contours of how film as a medium has shapeshifted and evolved in recent years, remembering and picturing instances in which the distinctions between documentary and cinema, fact and fiction, continue to blur in and out of sight.
Friday, 26 February 2021, 4.00 – 7.00pm SGT (8.00 – 11.00am GMT)
Saturday, 27 February 2021, 1.30 – 7.00pm SGT (5.30 – 11.00am GMT)
When: 26 - 27 Feb 2021,
By: NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore (NTU CCA Singapore)
