Interactive documentaries: reflections on the scope and limits of user participation basedon the analysis of three cases

Abstract

Based on the interaction possibilities they offer, digital technologies have led to the development of new narrative proposals that include users. Part of the documentary production has taken on this challenge by rehearsing new ways of telling stories of the real through the digitization of different discursive materialities and the empowerment for users of different modes of participation. This paper asks in what conditions “participation” is established in interactive documentary experiences.

In order to outline a tentative response, the participation options of three interactive documentaries are analyzed and placed in the question about the borders between the interactive and the transmedia. As part of the conclusions, it wonders about the links that openness to user participation establishes with problems of frequent approach in reflections on documentary cinema.