filmmaking. The filmmaker is not merely observing. He is never visible, but he interacts with the subject of the film, who is herself fully aware of everything that is taking place and who has helped shape the final product through commentary and presumably other input.
W.J.T. Mitchell addresses the issue of representation with reference to literature, noting that "the most common and naive intuition about literature is that it is a 'representation of life'" (Mitchell 11), a misperception that is even stronger with reference to film, and even stronger than that with reference to the documentary film. Aristotle saw the human being as an animal dedicated to representation, but this does not always mean a representation of life so much as a representation of a certain point of view. Another way of viewing artistic expression is in terms of archetypes, as Underwood does with a painting by Georges de la Tour and in terms of Carl Jung's psychology. Underwood notes how religions iconography in art represents the soul, and such art "contains the archetypes that rule the unconscious" (Underwood 13).
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