Undisclosed recipients: documentary in an era of digital convergence

As part of ‘two essays in dialogue’ with a piece written by Dale Hudson, this article
advances critical discussions of the documentary film given the context of, and
challenges posed by, digitality. Specifically, it analyses ‘the digital’ in Michael
Takeo Magruder’s {transcription} and [FALLUJAH. IRAQ. 31/03/2004] and
Christina McPhee’s La Conchita mon amour as a means to advance discussion
of documentary beyond claims to realism and documentary truth towards what
Trinh T. Minh-ha calls ‘boundary events’. Tay argues that digital video, editing
and compositing expose the limitations of visual evidence to represent trauma.