Anthropocene: The Human Epoch

Can documentary films convey ecological values? Robert Sinnerbrink (Macquarie University, Sydney) explores this question in his talk “Ecocinema and Ecological Value: Documentary Ethics in the Anthropocene.” Analysing three exemplary films, he works out different documentary approaches: the evidentiary-argumentative approach (An Inconvenient Truth, US 2006), the poetico-aestheticist approach (Koyaanisqatsi, US 1982), and a combination of the two. This hybrid ‘poetico-discursive’ approach can be found in the recent documentary Anthropocene: The Human Epoch (CA 2018), which will be screened after the lecture at 8 pm. In combining discursive arguments with poetic expression, such films are more likely to encourage enduring attitudinal and social change. (Hannes Wesselkämper)

The Cinepoetics Lectures are organized by the research center of the same name at Freie Universität Berlin in cooperation with Filmuniversität Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF.