Record. Reenact. Recycle. Notes on Shindō Kaneto’s Documentary Styles

In his work, the filmmaker Shindo Kaneto sought to employ various, often seemingly incongruous, cinematic styles that complicate the notions of fiction and documentary film. This paper first examines his 'semi-documentary' films that often deal with the everyday life of common people by means of an enhanced realist approach. Second, attention is paid to the fusion of documentary and drama when reenacting historical events, as well as the subsequent recycling of these images in a 'quasi-documentary' fashion. Finally, I uncover a trend towards 'meta-documentary' that takes issue with the act of filmmaking itself. I argue that Shindo's often self-referential work challenges the boundaries between fiction and non-fiction while engaging in a self-reflective criticism of cinema as a medium.