Impossible objectivity: free indirect perspectives in Finnish documentary cinema

This article argues that contemporary Finnish documentary cinema departs from the paradigm of authentic representations and instead builds on impossible objectivity. In so doing, the documentary films discussed in the article engage with a free indirect modality of expression and foreground multiplicity. This article suggests that this could open up a new way of understanding the work of documentary cinema: instead of authentic representations documentary cinema could be approached as a modality that expresses and experiments with the underpinning layers of customary perspectives and habitual speaking positions.