Output details

Not Reconciled

The documentary film Not Reconciled builds on Daniels’ earlier work, exploring the themes of location, identity, memory and history. Set in Belchite Spain, a medieval town ruined during a three-week civil war battle, its experiments with the evocation of a traumatic past-in-the-present were informed by research trips to Belchite and extensive research on the Civil War. The film’s fictional dialogue draws on researched first-hand accounts from the war's witnesses and participants, including members of the International Brigades, which were utilized in the creation of fictionalized characters. Daniels' research into the temporalities of trauma and films that engage with memory and trauma are reflected in the film's non-linearity, with its construction of time collapsed into simultaneity, as well as the creation of “a specific tone of a past […] as a continuing present” (Cowie, 2011). Not Reconciled's experimentation expands on the cinematic language of realist documentary by foregrounding place and fictional performativity to challenge the accepted role of the interview and narration in documentary film. Its sound includes minimal non-diegetic industrial noise aiming to evoke a sense of continuing displacement and loss. Daniels’ production company High Ground Films funded its £10,000 budget. See Daniels Output 3 for a more detailed description of her research imperatives.