This volume discusses documentary film, theatre, and literature from the 1960s to the 2020s in Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, and the Baltic states. It presents new developments in documentary aesthetics in the region but also expands on the political, medial, and aesthetic developments that shaped Soviet attitudes towards documentary arts and their legacy. Russia’s full-blown invasion of Ukraine has given documentary practices a new urgency. All over the region, documentary art has become a tool to counter-act the media and memory conflict waged, evidence practices of decolonization and address the archival heritage of totalitarian times. The book reflects on documentary approaches as an interdisciplinary and collaborative artistic tool in politically transformative and violent times. The innovative volume is designed as a research monograph for scholars and students of literature, culture, film, theatre, memory and trauma studies, but also at general readers interested in the documentary arts.
