Masterclass – WHAT IS DOCUMENTARY ? A FORMAL APPROACH WITH A SMIRK 

There are two main types of cinema. Regardless of their budget or geographical origin, most films are fictional, based on scripts and actors. However, there is another, much more limited type of cinema, which aims to capture reality. French critic André Bazin distinguished between a "cinema of reality" and a "cinema of images." Bazin considered documentary cinema to be the purest form of cinema, as the true power of the camera lies in its ability to record reality rather than fabricate it. One might, however, raise an objection: since every camera angle, every moment, and every editing choice are subjective, can a film truly document reality? Using concrete examples, we will address this topic, showing that, just as there are well-defined genres in fiction, documentary has well-defined narrative forms, which are not infinite. 

BIOS 

Jean-Stéphane Bron 

Jean-Stéphane Bron is a multi-award-winning Swiss director and screenwriter, known for his documentaries with distinctive narrative style, close to fiction. His work explores contemporary issues – from the economic crisis (Cleveland vs Wall Street, 2010) to artificial intelligence (The Brain, 2021). His films have been distributed in over 30 countries, through theaters, TV broadcasters (RTS, ARTE, Canal +, TV5, France TV, RAI, NHK, ZDF, RTBE, etc.) streamers (OCS, Amazon prime, Apple TV, Tënk, etc.) and numerous international festivals (Cannes, Locarno, CPH Dox, New York). In fiction, he created and directed The Deal (2025), a diplomatic thriller and award-winning series about the Iran nuclear negotiations. 

Sara Hellmüller  

Sara Hellmüller is a Research Professor at the Geneva Graduate Institute specialized in peace research. Her research focuses on UN peace and security engagements, mediation, peacekeeping, local and international peacebuilding (especially in Syria and DR Congo), knowledge production on peace, and Switzerland’s peace policy. Prior to her current role, she was a Senior Researcher at the Center for Security Studies (CSS) at ETH Zürich, Senior Researcher at swisspeace, and Lecturer at the University of Basel. She has also held visiting positions at the University of Oxford, University of Montreal, Columbia University in New York, and the University of Bunia in DR Congo. She has (co-)led several multi-year research projects, such as on belligerents’ consent to UN peace missions (2025-2029), on Switzerland’s first membership on the UN Security Council (2023-2025), on the impact of changing world politics on UN peace promotion (2020-2024), and on the role of norms in peace mediation (2015-2019). Sara is deeply committed to transformative science by combining in-depth empirical research with the application of her expertise in practice. She has conducted several mandates, for instance for the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs or the United Nations, in support of peace processes. 

Serge Michel 

A journalist and winner of the Albert Londres Prize for Reporting in 2001, he was deputy editor-in-chief of Le Temps and deputy director of Le Monde, for which he also created Le Monde Afrique. For L'Hebdo, he founded the Bondy Blog in the Paris suburbs. Serge is the author of several books on Iran, China, Africa, Iraq and Afghanistan. He is one of the co-founders of Heidi.news. 

Grégoire Mallard is Director of Research and Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at the Geneva Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. After earning his PhD at Princeton University in 2008, Pr. Mallard was Assistant Professor of Sociology at Northwestern University until he joined the Institute. He is the author of Fallout: Nuclear Diplomacy in an Age of Global Fracture (University of Chicago Press, 2014) and Gift Exchange: The Transnational History of a Political Idea (Cambridge University Press 2019). In 2024, he has co-founded a new Center for digital humanities and multilateralism at the Institute with the goal of reviving the interest for the future of multilateralism through an innovative analysis of its past. 

Marie-Laure Salles became Director of the Geneva Graduate Institute in September 2020. Before joining the Institute, she was Dean of the School of Management and Innovation at Sciences Po Paris, a school she launched in 2016. Before that, she was Professor at ESSEC Business School, where she was also, in turn, Dean of the Faculty and Associate Dean for the PhD Programme. 

With a PhD in Sociology from Harvard University and a habilitation à diriger les recherches from Dauphine University in Paris, Marie-Laure Salles was, until her arrival in Geneva, Professor at the Centre de sociologie des organisations (CSO) at Sciences Po Paris. Her research interests range from the role of social networks in the transnational diffusion of rules, practices and ideas, to the historical transformation of capitalism and national institutions, with a particular interest for the evolving nature of the social responsibility of firms and for the changing conditions of transnational dynamics of economic governance in the context of globalisation. 

Michelle Weitzel is an Assistant Professor in the Department of International Relations and Political Science at the Graduate Institute of Geneva. Prior to joining the Institute, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Basel (2020-2022). She received her PhD from The New School in 2020, where she trained in comparative politics and international relations and specialized in the political systems of the Middle East and North Africa. Weitzel’s research centers on repression, violence, conflict, critical security studies, spatial and sensory politics, affect and emotions. Her current book project, entitled “Sound Politics: Affective Governance and the State,” draws on case studies in Palestine, Israel, Algeria, France, and Morocco.