Cinema and authenticity: anxieties in the making of historical film^*

* This article was developed from papers delivered at the ‘Journeys Across Media’ conference (University of Reading, 2014) and ‘Out of Practice’ conference (University of Birmingham, 2016).

ABSTRACT

The practice of representing history on film brings the filmmaker into collision with a cluster of concerns around the authentic. While recent articles have considered the historical documentary and historical dramatisation, I seek to extend the debate into narrative fiction film set in historical periods. In this article, I discuss conflicting conceptions of authenticity. Through my own practice-as-research, I examine the decision-making within the preproduction of a historical drama (my short film, The Burning, 2016) in order to demonstrate the ways in which contradictory concepts of authenticity can coexist within a historical film project.

KEYWORDS:

• Historical film
• authenticity
• verisimilitude
• memory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Dominic Lees is Senior Lecturer in Film Production at the University for the Creative Arts (UCA) and is researching for a Ph.D. in film at the University of Reading, a practice-as-research project investigating ‘Creative Modes of Film Production’. He is also an experienced film and television director whose work bridges popular TV drama and award-winning independent film. His feature film Outlanders (2008) is a drama-thriller about East European migrants in the UK.

ORCID

Dominic Lees http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3787-3740

Notes

* This article was developed from papers delivered at the ‘Journeys Across Media’ conference (University of Reading, 2014) and ‘Out of Practice’ conference (University of Birmingham, 2016).