Paris Hilton und Anna Nicole Smith, Britney Spears und Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson und Amy Winehouse: for about 10 years, celebrity media have seen a trend towards the public rehabilitation of maligned stars. A majority of these productions are documentaries – streaming platforms are constantly expanding their documentary repertoire with films and series by, with, and about celebrities, attracting a large viewership and extensive discussion online. Shedding light on past public transgression and scandal by tapping into activist and feminist discourses, we are encouraged to critically examine past media practices, and ultimately redeem the star at hand.
In my dissertation project, I examine this trend through the concept of the “redemption documentary”. I choose this term to not only address an overall tendency toward high-profile public rehabilitation, but to critically examine the moralizing and normative gestures within a “redemptive” framework of celebrity engagement. Locating the “redemption documentary“ within the ever-changing terrains of post- and popular feminism and growing reactionary tendencies, I am interested in how it fits into to post-#MeToo online and fan cultures. By asking about the function of the celebrity in popular documentary, I focus on the underexamined intersection between popular and celebrity culture and documentary media. I am interested in how the celebrity can act as a catalyst for larger social questions, and, in becoming a documentary subject, for questions of reality, authenticity, and mediatization, but also in how the connection of celebrity and documentary changes the landscape of documentary production and distribution. How is the “redemption documentary” watched, listened to, consumed, and (re)produced? How does it navigate commodifiable political sensibility and affective reclamation? And what does it mean to fall from grace, and to be redeemed, in the first place?

Marie Malina is a PhD candidate within the graduate research program “Configurations of Film” at Goethe University, Frankfurt. She completed her bachelor’s degree in literature, art, and media studies at the University of Constance, as well as her master’s degree in theater, film, and media studies at Goethe University, Frankfurt. Next to her research, she has been working as an editor and translator. Her research interests include digital media, feminist and queer theory, fan studies and documentary studies.

malina[at]em.uni-frankfurt.de