ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis to interrogate what significance they might have for the ‘hidden’ mechanisms taking place in the documentary encounter. It offers a review of the meaning of transference as used by Freud, Lacan and then other thinkers. The chapter looks at the use of transference in literary studies in terms of describing the relationship between the reader and the text, a move that has interestingly never taken place in film studies. It introduces the gaze and its significance in the documentary project. The chapter focuses on Shoshana Felman’s work on the structure of story-telling in Lacan—which allows for a distance to a particular situation and a reflection. It outlines the relevance of these concepts to the processes inside the making of a documentary film.
