mockumentary cinema ontology; Presenting a new approach in film analysis, based on the ideas of Alain Badiou (A case study of four prominent films in world cinema)

The emergence of new approaches to form and content in cinema has led to the creation of diverse and numerous genres and subgenres, which are derived from the combination of primary genres and modes. Additionally, the use of innovative techniques in various stages of film production has occasionally resulted in the formation of hybrid genres and modes, necessitating a deeper analysis and understanding of these cinematic developments. This research aims to examine and analyze such new approaches in cinema by studying and summarizing contemporary theories. Therefore, in order to analyze these methods and new genres, which also exhibit a significant abundance, there is a serious need for more advanced analytical approaches. These approaches should be based on solid foundations, rooted in new theoretical frameworks, and capable of being utilized as a unified theory for film analysis, either in a specific case or in a broader context, to examine genres and subgenres in cinema. Based on this premise, this article focuses on examining and analyzing new domains in contemporary cinema based on Alain Badiou's ontological thought, which is grounded in set theory in mathematics. In the first stage, an attempt is made to elucidate this ontological theory to identify its formation grounds and its points of differentiation from major approaches in contemporary philosophy, and to open up avenues for developing a new approach to film analysis. Next, the structural oppositions in Badiou's theoretical concepts are extracted and classified in the elements of form and content in mockumentary film, in order to observe their impact on the structure of such filmmaking. By examining the theoretical roots of Badiou’s ideas among major contemporary philosophical theories, their origins and differentiations are explored, and a general framework of Badiou’s philosophy is. Then, the fundamental concepts and oppositions in Badiou’s theory are examined in the truth procedure, and their potential for providing an analytical approach to mockumentary filmmaking is investigated. Finally, according to this pattern, four mockumentary films are categorized and analyzed using a descriptive-analytical approach, providing an overall analysis of mockumentary cinema. The results demonstrate that the derived pattern from Badiou’s theory can be effectively employed in the analysis of mockumentary cinema, describing and analyzing the functioning of structural elements in these films through the creation of oppositions and dualities. This approach can also contribute to a better understanding of documentary cinema by analyzing the relationships and oppositions between its elements and the elements of fiction film. Furthermore, it is observed that the dualistic oppositions of reality/truth, art/non-art, and pure/impure in Badiou’s ontological theory in art and cinema can be significant and decisive in the analysis of form and content in mockumentary filmmaking. The dualistic elements present in mockumentary films and the oppositions in these ontological concepts elucidate what is represented in documentary cinema. In conclusion, such an approach can be effective in understanding, describing, and analyzing mockumentary cinema as well as having an impact on documentary filmmaking.