The unreliable witness. 12 assertions on the documentary.
Published in volume "Dokument, Fälschung, Wirklichkeit" by Theater der Zeit.
Edited by Tobias Brenk, Boris Nikitin, Carena Schlewitt
Further contributions by Dirk Baecker, Barbara Gronau, Gregor Gysi, Cuqui Jerez, Hans-Werner Kroesinger, Rabih Mroué, Rachid Ouramdane, Milo Rau, She She Pop, Fritz Simon, Stefanie Wenner
In twelve theses the essay outlines the documentary theater of the 21st century. The text from 2014 refers to the possibilities of the non-fictional, as well as its contradictions and pitfalls.
An essential idea is that the common forms of the documentary are able to represent reality, but never to grasp it. The documentary does not simply represent reality, but above all produces it. The documentary and its falsification cannot be distinguished from each other. This is precisely why the documentary is able to overwrite reality again and again, in both a positive and negative sense. It is both emancipatory and destructive.