Summary

The aim of this paper is to study the notion of cinemadevice in political documentary films. Its definition and effect constitute the problem to be investigated. The way in which this device works is described, considering it a mechanism for the construction of meaning that selects and organizes into a hierarchy the elements of reality expressed in the screen, applying to that end different assessment criteria. The starting point is the premise that political documentary film is a film genre composed around narrative, expressive, stylistic and particular argumentative forms. Considering that approach, it is suggested that the political documentary is a political-ideological practice – based on the idea of promise – that aims either to impose an alternative model of society or to endorse the social dominant paradigm through a process of veridiction. This process is described as an agreement between narrator and recipient of the communication, in which it is defined what is real inside the narrated world. This in turn tenses the true-false relationship, so as to cause adhesion or rejection in the spectator’s conscience.