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Derrida
Kirby Dick & Amy Ziering Kofman, 2002; 84 mins.
Een if you've never heard the name "Jacques Derrida,"
you're probably familiar with the term most often associated with him --
"deconstruction": and even if you've never heard that word, you've certainly
experienced a world deconstructed into what has come to be called
"postmodernity." The brilliant and controversial French philosopher's
stock-in-trade is the debunking of supposed authorities and absolutes that have gone unchallenged as Natural or Truth with a
capital "T". That's why the notion of a documentary about Derrida, who among
his many debunkings has debunked the notion of biography and history, is such
a tantalizing prospect: especially when the documentarian understands how the
subject's ideas intersect with the entire process of documentary-making. The
result is an amazing game of cat-and-mouse between a subject who is peerless
when it comes to extreme skepticism about truth and a filmmaker who is out to
deconstruct the "Father of Deconstruction" himself, one way or another,
directly, or between the lines. Derrida's ideas are notoriously difficult,
and obviously PhDs will come away from this film getting more of the
philosophical "in-jokes" than most of us civilians. Nevertheless, even those
who will never speak the lingo will be drawn into a discussion that we all
have a stake in, concerning truth and reality in a postmodern age. This
delightfully smart, and surprisingly accessible film will be
introduced by Brian Walsh, the co-author
(with J. Richard Middleton) of
Truth is Stranger Than It Used To Be:
Biblical Faith in a Postmodern Age.
Derrida
is part of the Documentaries program at Flickerings at Cornerstone Festival,
July 2-5, 2003.See complete Schedule
Copyright 2003, Cornerstone Communications, Inc.
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