Y Dosbarth Melyn [The Yellow Classroom] Authorial Ontology and Communicative Intentionality in (an) Observational Documentary Film

Abstract

The aim of Y Dosbarth Melyn [The Yellow Classroom] in research terms was to explore in what ways the observational mode of documentary filmmaking might relate to the selfhood of the author. In particular, the work asks: how does the observational documentary mode enable an author to communicate aspects of their own ontological position? Screened at Wales International Film Festival, Camarthen Bay Film Festival, Wairoa Film Festival, and the Cardiff International Film Festival, Y Dosbarth Melyn [The Yellow Classroom] underlines the contingent and shifting nature of the connection between text and audience in the filmmaker’s mind. In particular, the work shows that observational documentary techniques can be used in a more fluid way than has been previously recognised and admitted by many of the field’s Direct Cinema practitioners.