MFJ 74 “Fact/Artifact”

Fall 2021

In archaeology, an artifact is an object produced by human hands that emerges during excavation field work and may reveal aspects of past societies: facts about extinct ways of life. In computer science, artifact refers to data that obscures or misleads rather than reveals. This second definition also serves to qualify the first. Is archaeology not itself hampered by external factors? Is the pursuit of past realities ever an objective or uncomplicated practice? Who goes about this work, with what methods and instruments? Throughout this issue of Millennium Film Journal, our contributors apply this line of questioning to media artifacts.

MFJ 74 is a substantial, broad-ranging issue, enhanced by the contributions of our distinguished new editors Jonathan Ellis, Nicholas Gamso, Nicky Hamlyn and Kim Knowles. Deniz Johns analyses the work of the UK-based research collective Forensic Architecture; Toby Lee, Laliv Melamed, Pooja Rangan, Paige Sarlin, and Benjamín Schultz-Figueroa propose to define documentary filmmaking not simply as evidentiary but as operational in a roundtable feature, Documentary (adj.); David Fresko reviews Annette Michelson’s collected writings on Soviet Cinema; Madison Brookshire’s article on Anal Shah’s suggests that some contemporary nonfiction films stimulate receptive responses by eliding subject matter altogether; Vera Dika writes on Dore O.’s experimental films; Clint Enns interviews Klarissa Hahn about her filmmaking practices. Other artists’ work include Artist Pages by Vincent Grenier, and MFJ editor Rachel Stevens’ Studio Visit with Jen Liu.