AWW: Deconstructionist deconstructed?

A proposal for a deconstructionist study deconstructed.

Film Student: I want to deconstruct Alison Klayman’s documentary  Never Sorry, a look at the work of Chinese artist activist AWW.

Professor: How are you deconstructing the film?

Film Student: By applying Bill Nichols’ modes and assigning a mode to each take.

Professor: Isn’t that just analyzing the film?

Film Student: Well, it’s a critical analysis of the internal workings of the film. How it was conceived, how it was shot, how it was edited. Deconstructing it in terms of Nichols’ modes.

Professor: Why don’t you just say that AWW is a deconstructionist? That’s what he does. Through his post-modern fragments, he deconstructs art. Through his insistence on freedom, he deconstructs politics. In that sense AWW is a deconstructionist according to the Derridean meaning.

_________

Voice-over

Never Sorry is a documentary. Bill Nichols is a film critic and theoretician.

Bill Nichols' Modes of Documentary Film
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