Representing the Self. Cinematic Autobiography and Auto-Fiction in Post 1990 Slovak Nonfiction Cinema

Abstract

Techniques of representing the Self in literature and pictorial arts have a long-standing tradition in the genres of autobiography and self-portraiture. Cinematic self-documentation enables the filmmakers to capture memories and images as part of their journey toward self-knowledge in response to coping with both global and personal changes. This paper explores selected Slovak documentary films in which the directors employ essayistic forms of the cinematic medium to represent the Self through a multiplication of identities with varying degrees of referentiality to the real world. It analyses autobiographical films Home Movie, A New Life of a Family Album, Self-Portrait, The Last Self-Portrait, Notes from Eremocene, +-90, and Wave vs. shore, examining the spectrum of referential autobiographic alter egos created by the authors of these nonfiction films.