Cinema and Reality: An Interview with Professor Erik Knudsen

Year 2020, , 204 - 209, 06.04.2020

Besna Ağın

https://doi.org/10.32739/etkilesim.2020.5.94

Abstract

We interviewed famous British ƪlm researcher and producer Professor Erik Knudsen on cinema and reality. Professor Knudsen is one of the prominent names of the cinema community with his academic studies on cinema, and is known for his experience in ƪlmmaking. Knudsen is known for his works especially in the ƪeld of experimental and documentary cinema. We had a conversation with Professor Knudsen, who mastered both the theoretical and practicalƪelds of cinema, on cinema and reality. 

I don’t feel it is cinema that contributes to humanity; people do. And they do so through stories, predominantly, that they tell using various forms. Cinema is one of the forms used by people as they construct their worlds through communication, dialogue and sharing of stories. “The universe is not made of atoms, but stories”. (Muriel Rukeyser). Cinema happens to be a new form - joining with other forms such as music, poetry, literature, painting, theatre and even non artistic forms - born speciƪcally out of the industrial age. In this sense, the cinematic form is a new addition to the way people can tell their stories. While cinema may not have changed the underlying stories being told, cinema will have changed the way people tell some of those stories. Cinema has, therefore, in that sense contributed to an expansion of the language we use to articulate our stories. In theƪrst instance a language exclusively con trolled by the few, who therefore controlled the stories being told through the medium, to now being a democratised language accessible to all. This democratisation is impacting on how cinematic language is used, for what purpose and is leading to cinema not just being about one way

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