Animated Documentary: Problems of Classifying the Hybrid Forms of Post-Digital Culture

Animadoc has become a phenomenon of post-digital culture. Such films are created by means of animation, but their stories are based on documents, facts, and real events. Synthetics, the use of images of varying degrees of iconic isomorphism are typical for animadoc. The problem of classifying animated documentary arises from its hybrid nature, resulting from the combination of documentary content and fictional form.

For the first time, there are three main tendencies of research in the sphere of animated documentary based on the analysis of the corpus of scientific texts. The first tendency views the animated documentary as a genre or form of performing documentaries. The advent of digital technologies brought about a fundamentally new understanding of documentary, rethinking the concept of authenticity, reality, screen document. Subjective and performance tendencies are becoming more prominent in documentaries. This makes it possible to legalize documentary animation with its reconstructive, reflective, and interpretive constituents.

The second tendency looks upon animadoc as a genre or a new kind of animation. It expands the thematic boundaries and visual means of animation. It goes beyond its traditional areas. Animation is no longer considered a tool intended solely for the presentation of fantastic and fairy-tale worlds and the space of children's imagination.

The third trend in research considers animated documentary a hybrid, experimental form of supersensory visuality, representing invisible areas of reality, as an optical practice and a form of alternative vision, which instead of the surface focuses on the "folds", the zones of concealment and ellipsis.

This tendency makes no emphasis on the specific and genre differences. What matters is how animadoc builds new forms of communication and becomes a new type of observation. The socializing and therapeutic functions of animadoc are emphasized, and it begins to be understood as a form of screen media of post-digital culture.