Documentaries and science in 20th century Europe
25 November 2020
Online (for more information)
Conference organized by Ximo Guillem-Llobat (IILP-UV), and José Ramon Bertomeu-Sánchez (IILP-UV) as part of the Catalan Society for the History of Science and Technology 2020-2021 Seminar Series online, in English, and at Spanish local time. For more information and updates visit their website.
Resum: En aquest cicle comptarem amb tres especialistes en el documental mèdic i de natura que han analitzat tres contextos geogràfics ben diversos com són el britànic, francès i espanyol i han posat l’èmfasi en les seues investigacions en diferents períodes del segle XX. Amb els seus estudis de cas i la seua llarga experiència en aquest àmbit ens plantejarem qüestions com ara: Qui va produir en cada context els documentals? Amb quin objectiu ho van fer? Quins han estat els públics d’aquests documentals i com reaccionaren al visionat? Quina relació hi ha hagut entre el documental científic i la recerca? Com ha influït el documental en la projecció i autoritat de la ciència en l’àmbit social?
Analitzarem els documentals com a font i resultat de la recerca científica tant en l’àmbit de les ciències natural com de la medicina del segle XX i ens podrem endinsar en debats de llarga durada com ara aquell sobre el concepte de veritat i artifici en el documental científic. Amb la diversitat d’aproximacions adés esmentada volem copsar la significació del documental de ciència i la seua evolució en l’Europa del segle XX. Volem així revisar aquella transició que sovint ha fet palesa la bibliografia centrada en la història del documental científic; una transició que s’hauria donat des d’una concepció del documental com una tècnica de visualització controlada per científics i subordinada a la ciència a una apropiació del documental per altres agents socials, externs a la ciència, que passaren a convertir-se en iguals en la producció de coneixement.
Les conferències dels ponents quedaran enregistrades i el cicle acabarà amb una taula rodona en la qual volem fer més activa la participació dels públics que podran elaborar els seus comentaris i preguntes a partir del visionat de les conferències individuals prèviament subministrades.
1) “Si es bueno, es Bayer”. Health education, corporate communication and the filmic image-building of German pharma industry as the world’s pharmacy”
Christian Bonah (Université de Strasbourg)
Abstract: In many Latin and South American countries the slogan “Si es Bayer, es Bueno” has become a familiar, popular expression testifying to what corporations have tried to measure for a long time: spectator impact. Audio-visual communication has been at the forefront of promotional strategies for the German pharmaceutical giant Bayer ever since the 1920s when the corporation engaged with the concept of Wertwerbung, literally “value advertisement”. Promotional health education films participated strongly in corporate name, brand and image building. Building consumer trust in a company and its name was essential in a time when Bayer had lost many of its drug patents after WWI. The company established its own independent Filmstelle, a unit for film planning and production and developed and operated in the 1930s Bayer sound film trucks that toured remote areas throughout Germany, Europe and worldwide for public film shows. Building on recent scholarship in the field of industrial, sponsored, non-fiction and most recently utility film studies, the contribution will analyse how Bayer established its film production unit and its film production for a worldwide market in the 1920s and 1930s. Furthermore, we will ask how this corporate strategy played out to promote at the same time health education, modern German science and industry and the corporate brand behind the films.
Videos:
In the service of humanity (Dir. W. Ruttmann, GER, 1938)
In einer Stunde um die Welt [In one hour around the world] (Dir. J. Pinschewer, GER, 1931)
Malaria (Dir. U. Kayser, GER, 1934)
Note: Films available on the Medfilm platform. Medfilm has in principle an open access policy for higher education institutions and non-commercial educational use through Edugain (connect via SSO at the top right). If access should be blocked please contact us for assistance at: medfilm@unistra.fr
Christian Bonah és un historiador de la medicina que ha fet importants contribucions en molts àmbits i que darrerament ha estat molt actiu en l’estudi de la història del documental mèdic. És un dels coordinadors de la plataforma pedagògica Medfilm i ha estat co-editor del llibre publicat el 2020 Body, Capital, and Screens. Visual Media and the Healthy Self in the 20th Century (Amsterdam University Press).
2) Wildlife filmmaking in the 1960s, when artifice becomes evidence
Jean Baptiste Gouyon (University College London)
Abstract: "The emergence of a professional culture of wildlife filmmaking in Britain in the 1960s was accompanied by a redefinition of the value of artifice and intervention for the production of reliable and true-to-nature representations of wildlife. As long as wildlife filmmaking was part of the cultural space of amateur natural history, displays of non-intervention and self-effacement in the field were seen as guarantees of trustworthiness for filmmakers. But once a professional culture of wildlife filmmaking started to be developed to be part of the cultural space of science, displays of intervention and of the skilful use of artifice, become evidence of reliability for filmmakers.
This talk looks at this transition, focusing on two making-of documentary programmes, Unarmed Hunters (BBC, 1963) and The Making of a Natural History Film (BBC, 1972), to reflect on this transition in the context of the history of television in Britain".
Video: The Making of a Natural History Film (1972).
Jean-Baptiste Gouyon és autor de BBC Wildlife Documentaries in the Age of Attenborough, publicat el 2019 (Palgrave). Amb aquest llibre s’endinsa en la historia dels documentals sobre natura a la televisió britànica. De manera més general, ha treballat en la representació de la ciència als mitjans audiovisuals i els museus.
3) El hombre y la tierra [Man and the Earth, Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente, 1974-1981], and the construction of the environment in 1970s Spain
Carlos Tabernero (CEHIC-UAB)
Abstract: This seminar will offer a historical reading of the acclaimed TV series El Hombre y la Tierra (Man and the Earth, 1974-1981), produced and directed by Felix Rodríguez de la Fuente (1928-1980), a pioneering and highly influential naturalist, activist and natural history author and broadcaster, in the complex socio-political scene of the late Franco’s dictatorship and the changeover to the democratic administration. We will examine how, in this series, Rodríguez de la Fuente blended his very particular narratives about local wildlife with the depiction of scientific and media practices, all within a quite complex cross-platform storytelling strategy in which television was pivotal. It will also focus on how he played these narrative and technical elements together to create a quite successful feedback loop to actively engage audiences in naturalist-like practices in their everyday-life endeavors.
Situated in such a noticeably changing context regarding politics, science, media, and the perception of the environment, this case study will allow us to discuss historically how Rodríguez de la Fuente’s natural history narratives addressed the establishment’s concerns and strategies regarding the long-sought and promised modernization of Spain. Man and the Earth, while featuring the natural sciences as both focal point and main source of knowledge, arguably became a keystone of intensely negotiated strategies of transformation, both in television and society. By contextualizing this series in its specific social, political and cultural setting, as well as within a larger framework of science popularization, this seminar will thus contribute to the understanding of key features of contemporary, media-driven science communication.
Video: El hombre y la Tierra (40 años sin Félix)
Carlos Tabernero Holgado es professor d’història de la ciència al Centre d’Història de la Ciència (CEHIC) de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). La seua recerca i docència s’han centrat en els mitjans de comunicació (sobretot cinema i televisió) i en els processos de popularització i comunicació de la ciència al segle XX. El 2016 es publicava el seu llibre Terapias de cine (UOC).
Image: In the Service of Humanity, 1938.
