William Kentridge Ubu Tells the Truth , 1996 - 1997 Animated Film, 35mm film, DVD and video transfer
In conversation with Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev,on the subject of the camera in Kentridge's drawings, which in _Ubu Tells the Truth_ transofrms into a police helicpoter or a surveillance eye:
"There's a range of associations around the camera as an instrument of control, scrutiny, recording and memory. It's a rich emblem. but I couldn't tell you if in the film, when Ubu turns into a camera, he is photographing himself. Is it some god-like body or conscience photographing him to judge him? All I can say is that during a Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearing of one of the South African Police, part of the evidence presented was home movies of murders, which the police had filmed themselves. Were those policemen filming this out of a crazed sadism? Were they doing it thinking that, if they were charged they could prove that others were also involved? Were they perversely acting as documentary photographers? That ambiguity is echoed in what the image might be doing in the film. The story of how those police came to have those home movies somehow confirms the figure of Ubu turning into a camera." William Kentridge
