Is Authenticity Still Alive?

The Truth We Almost Hid was created to evoke a spark of what is that truth that we are hiding as individuals from other individuals. And why do we feel the need to hide our real selves, and meet the expectations of a mere society that is always ready to catch what is not good in you? Why do we fall into that pressure, when are we truly going to break free? This documentary will open doors to a raw series of what our guests (interviewees) have to say about today’s world and how we are all running behind perfection.

 

This concept is derived from what the society perceived to be and what allegations it proposes on individuals who are unable to cherish their true selves but are forced to create replicas of the same output. In the modern world, the media prompts individuals to manage every aspect of their lives and adjust their appearance, behavior, and even mood to the social norms. According to Byung-Chul Han (2015) in The Burnout Society, contemporary individuals are so obsessed with the pressure of performance that it is not important to be real but to get things done well. We attempted to reveal this internal struggle in our film with the help of interviews, symbolic cinematics, and an experimental narrative revealing that it is desired to be real and it is destroyed.

 

The symbolism of the pressure to appear perfect takes the forms of painting, masks, and acting as used in our documentary. It also combines distortion, artificial intelligence images and symbolic violence in demonstrating how society murders the real self. A mere artistic appearance evolved into an introspection of what it means to be different, what it means to be original. 

 

The Exit Through the Gift Shop (Banksy, 2010) film that challenges who is real in art was one of the primary factors that affected our documentary in its style of interviewing and the visuals used. The film by Banksy leaves the boundary between reality and creation and makes people wonder whether there is something original in this world of mass reproduction. This had a direct influence on our Catalyst interview: a meditative, closer discussion about truth, a critique of the art world rewarding copying as it is being criticized by Banksy. According to Nichols (2017), contemporary documentaries are a combination of acting and observation, and they form hybrids. Our Catalyst demonstrates himself in our performative documentary mode but he does not only talk as an interviewee but as a symbolic voice challenging authenticity.

 

The message of this short documentary and the imperfect beauty created an impact on the story of the painter. This concept is consistent with the Japanese concept of Wabi-Sabi, which is the appreciation of imperfection, things left unfinished, and change (Juniper, 2003). To reveal the rawness of Wabi-Sabi, we applied slow close-ups of sloppy palettes and jagged brush strokes.

 

We can see this aesthetic in our documentary, alongside a hyper-polished version of the painting as created by AI-software showing the way society rejects imperfection in pursuit of machine perfect images. That contrast assisted in demonstrating how vulnerability is being eliminated by digital perfectionism.

 

There was an Instagram Monologue of Nelly London. The impact of the idea of standards of beauty Nelly London holds on the emotional side of the interviews. The way she says, I’m so tired of this never-ending struggle with perfectionism, is the way people get tired of this game of always comparing themselves to a picture of the perfect ones. The interview questions regarding self-image, identity and emotional weariness were informed by her words.

 

Han (2015) states that the current generation does not require outside foes as people have exploited themselves, and they are always in an attempt to live as ideal figures. The monologue of London is a contemporary mode of personal expression of the same thing.

 

Talking about the Historical Methods & Conceptual Bases, the theory of Documentary Modes & Authenticity by Nichols. Our structure was directed by a theory of Bill Nichols on documentary modes. Our documentary followed a  Performative Mode - the Catalyst delivers emotional, intensive speeches, mainly in terms of our scripted shots and Catalyst’s interview. And according to Nichols (2017), performative documentaries are based on personal truth and not objective fact. It is this mode that allows us to conceptualize authenticity as a subjective process of pressure, uncertainty, and self-censorship.

 

While Michael Rabiger emphasizes the ethical responsibility of the director to expose subjects in an honest and conscious way concerning power. Our documentary adheres to the principle of ethical intention suggested by Rabiger (2009) by allowing interviewees to explain the concept of authenticity to them without imposing a specific narrative. The montage format maintains their uniqueness as their voices are connected to one larger description of social pressure.

 

The Identity of the Mask (Foucault, Agamben, Koch), the scenes shot in the crowded places with the masks belong to: The notion of surveillance introduced by Foucault people alter their behaviour because they feel observed at all times (Foucault, 1977). The concept of identity crisis offered by Agamben is applied nowadays as once a person is compelled to conform to a socially accepted image, losing his or her originality (Agamben, 1998).

 

According to Koch, media and self-presentation cause us to continue redefining our image, just as online culture. The masks demonstrate the way people create acceptable rather than real identities. The masks scenes are the society and the pressures they impose on people to the point that they lose their originality.

 

The AI generated version of the painting reveals the notion of Roland Barthes who argues that the death of the author is a hoax since all works of art are built on the work that was done before (Barthes, 1977). The concept is applied in our film to the age of AI, where digital copying removes the human aura that digital copying removes the handmade art, and which, according to Walter Benjamin (2008), makes art so special.

 

When the painting has become an AI version, the artist is confused, the human emotion has been substituted with a sterile, algorithmic polish.

 

The Documentary Implementation and Symbolic Cinematic Choices. In the film, a low angle shot of an artist with a dripping brush opens the film. It creates a promising yet weak atmosphere. The red drip on the floor creates a sense of depth to what this narrative awaits. According to Rabiger (2009), such openings pre-establish the story without any talking taking place. Wide and close shots of mixing paint are used in accordance with the Wabi-Sabi concept delighting in untidy changes. The canvas is visibly real and the scenes later reveal the effect of outside pressure correcting all the flaws, when the transition takes place.

 

The Catalyst is not a character, but a mouth piece of what society expects. It moves in between thinking and being intrusive. The concept of the documentary by Renov (2004) that combines the so-called self-reflexive and the so-called poetic methods of demonstrating the real feelings is applicable here. The Catalyst becomes increasingly volatile as the movie progresses, and this is how the lack of faith leads to the rise of uncertainty in individuals when they feel the pressure of a perfect society.

 

The truth uncovered in Interviews. Are based in how they are arranged that it resembles a mosaic, with each voice bringing a new twist to the concept of authenticity:

 

AI expert: analogousness in digital labor.

 

Prof. arts: inspiration and copying.

 

Media designer: societal pressure.

 

CEO boss: worthy of a natural, honest self.

 

This reveals the concept by Nichols (2017) that documentaries have the ability to establish truth in conjunction with multiple voices.

 

But the killing of the Catalyst “Violence used in a Metaphorical value”. This scene in which the killing occurs is in line with the notion of Renne Girard that violence tends to reveal a social tension and scapegoating (Girard, 1977). In our documentary, the masked man kills the Catalyst to demonstrate to the society how it is unacceptable to abandon the aspect that there is truth in things. According to Susan Sontag (2003), the violent images expose compelling cultural anxieties. In this case the terror is of losing authenticity, society of the unpolished, unperfect self. The true expression gets marked by the later scene of having a knife and blood smear to actually depict that there is always going to be something or someone who will kill authenticity.

 

As soon as the work of the painter is transformed into a perfect AI image, creativity becomes normal. Contemporary media researchers explain that AI has the potential to homogenize art since it replicates existing trends (Elgan, 2023). Strokes that are not refined in the original painting demonstrate humanity; the image created by AI depicts conformity.

 

All the segments of this documentary the painting, interviews, masks, Catalyst, violence, and AI, lead to the same idea:

 

Authenticity is punished and conformity rewarded in society.

 

This struggle by the painter demonstrates how weak creation is. And the Interviews indicate that people are pressured to be perfect. While the Catalyst demonstrates the skeptical attitude of the group.The masks reveal the image of the self that people exhibit to survive in a competitive world. Lastly the murder demonstrates what revengeful people do to the nonconformers.

And the glitch where the AI painting demonstrates the weakness of originality in the face of external demands.

 

The fact that society requires perfection and performance (Han, 2015), also influenced the ending of the movie: the authenticity is lost in many little steps instead of a massive downfall.

 

In summary: the Truth We Almost Hid.

 

The Truth We Almost Hid is a documentary as well as commentary on life in the present times. It presents a case that authenticity is becoming extinct not due to lack of authenticity in people, but because the world demands perfectness every time, comparison, and show-off, through symbols and layering.

 

Through film theory, philosophy and art history, this documentary is able to contextualize these individual struggles within the broader crisis of culture. It constantly reminds the viewers that failure is not imperfection, we are humans because of it. 

​

​

Bibliography.

 

Agamben, G. (1998). Hominis Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life. Discovers the identity and the process of people being diminished into socially acceptable forms. Lent us our mask symbolism.

 

Banksy. (2010). Exit through the Gift Shop [Movie]. Influenced the performative interviewer style and interrogation of originality of the documentary.

 

Barthes, R. (1977). Image, Music, Text. Brought in concepts of unstable authorship, which has been applied to describe the AI painting.

 

Benjamin, W. (2008). The Art Work of the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Applied to the talking about loss of aura when art goes digital.

 

Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and Punish. Granted us our vigilance, our self-control and masks.

 

Girard, R. (1977). Violence and the Sacred. Theory of violence as symbolic convection in the murder scene.

 

Han, B.-C. (2015). The Burnout Society. Key point of reference to the culture of perfection in the modern world and the internalized pressure.

 

Juniper, A. (2003). Wabi Sabi: The Art of the impermanence of the Japanese. Applied to dissect the rough lines and flawless looks of the painter.

 

Nichols, B. (2017). Introduction to Documentary. Informed our documentary mode bias and polyvocal interview format.

 

Rabiger, M. (2009). Directing the Documentary. Manipulated moral aspects and allegorical film decisions.

 

Renov, M. (2004). The Subject of Documentary. Assisted in the formative performance and retrospective style of the Catalyst.

 

Sontag, S. (2003). Regarding the Pain of Others. Categorized as visual violence as metaphor.

​