Projections of the concept "Survivor" on documentary cinema

Survivor as a concept is used in place of "victim" for the individuals who have been subjected to sexual violence at any time in their lives. The concept was born within feminist studies in search of new language(s) and concept(s) that would offer different perspectives. Through the articulation of queer studies into feminism, language has begun to be conceived as a means to shake the norms. In this sense, both feminism and queer theory have become important tools to challenge the myths about sexual violence, as well as to develop strategies to empower the survivor. This study aims to analyze the repercussions of the survivor (from sexual violence) as a concept in documentary cinema by making use of feminist and queer research and documentary cinema literature. In order to do so, the survivor concept will be discussed first, and then following examples selected as samples will be analyzed within the context of arguments that the concept is referring to: Dreamcatcher (Longinotto, 2015), Primas (Bari, 2017) ve Paternal Rites (Rosskam, 2018).