A (Plat)Form between Media - Text 3
In English, the expressions “database documentaries” or “documentary databases” – which express the cross between creating a database and creating a storyline – once rivalled the terms “web documentary” and “interactive documentary.” The former pair refers to a broader field, the “database narrative.”[5] These expressions underscore the importance of managing data in the transformation of documentary cinema in the digital age.
Therefore, despite the fact that the term “web documentary” gradually took hold after 2008, the notion of interactivity is often foregrounded to describe cultural productions which are then described as applications” or “Web experiences,” as is currently the case on the website of the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).[6] There thus exists tension between a name centred on identifying an innovative format and one emphasizing a change in the user’s situation. Finally, the slight decline in the use of the term “web documentary” since 2018 is a sign of the institutionalization process, which remains incomplete, and of a technical innovation which, while not forgotten, has not become a medium.
