Introducing i‐Docs to geography: exploring interactive documentary's nonlinear imaginaries

This paper introduces interactive documentaries, or i-Docs, to Geography through an analysis of one i-Doc; Gaza Sderot. Interactive Documentary is an increasingly popular documentary form. I-Docs are defined by ‘nonlinear’ spatiotemporal organisation as their interactive capacities enable multiple pathways through documentary footage and materials. It is often argued that this nonlinearity is politicized by i-Docs to enable polyvocality and the destabilisation of dominant narratives. I argue that i-Docs deserve Geographical attention for two key reasons. Firstly, if Geographers have long explored articulations and reformulations of space-time through media then i-Docs offer an insight into contemporary constructions of nonlinear spatiotemporal imaginaries through interactive medium. Secondly, nonlinearity and its politics has also become foundational to Geography’s own approaches to space-time, making pertinent the explorations of nonlinearity and its socio-political implications that engagement with i-Docs enables. In this context, I analyse Gaza Sderot to explore its construction of a nonlinear spatiotemporal imaginary and question the political perspectives that imaginary generates for its subject of the Gaza conflict. In concluding, I also suggest that i-Docs could be a valuable methodological tool for Geographers.