Psychoanalysis and Ethics in Documentary Film

Abstract

Knowledge, Professor Frosh never got tired of sending out search parties when I got lost. I have learnt so much thanks to him and from him during the last three years.I am also grateful to Laura Mulvey for keeping an eye on my film theory and for encouraging me to explore transference outside the clinic, and to Amber Jacobs for her productive challenges. I must say 'thank you' to Bernard Burgoyne, Denise Riley, Noga Wine, Elizabeth Cowie for their generous encouragement and probing discussions, and last but not least, to Mladen Dolar, who somehow has become a friend through the debates about his work and mine. My studies have been supported by a Birkbeck College Scholarship for which I am indebted. The extraordinary intellectual opportunities at the College and at the Department of Psychosocial Studies have been an important invaluable resource. In particular, I am grateful to Lisa Baraitser, Sasha Roseneil and Lynne Segal as well as Anna Strhan for their kind and wise words at key moments. I am also thankful to Polona Curk for her friendship and insightful comments on an earlier draft of the thesis. I wish to acknowledge the generosity and tolerance of my new institution, University of Bedfordshire, and in particular that of Peter Dean, in allowing me the time necessary to complete this work. My family, my husband Stewart Cornes and my son Leo Michelmore in particular, and friends all over the world, have endured the three long years of my obsessing about this work with humour and affection. It is probably unfair to single out anybody and yet I would like to say how grateful I am for the support and love of my two great women friends -not just throughout this research but over the decades of my life, namely to Ania Libertowska and Clare Riley.'There are women producers but sometimes they become more like men' (ibid.: 52). See also Kaja Silverman about female voice and authorship (1988).