「何謂真實記錄?」、「紀錄片是否可能反映真實?」、「紀錄片如何反映真實?」這些與紀錄片真理理論(truth theory)相關的問題,長久以來引發了諸多的意見分歧與爭議。本文便是以紀錄片的真理理論的探討核心,在文中,筆者觸及了紀錄片領域中四種不同的真理觀,分別是:(1)基礎論的真理觀;(2)符應論的真理觀;(3)由模式論轉向倫理方法的真理解;(4)轉向語言溝通行動的真理觀。上述的前兩種真理觀,有助於釐清過去引發爭議的原因:後兩種真理觀,則對紀錄片的真理研究提供新的思考方向。根據本文研究,過去引發紀錄片真理爭議的主因乃是在於諸多關鍵概念的模糊與誤用,而解決爭議的方式,除了要作出概念的釐清之外,更須重新思考紀錄在攝製上的媒體特殊性,以及紀錄片作為一種廣義的社會溝通語言工具的使用意涵,將倫理學與社會實踐脈絡導入原本屬於認識論的真理探討。
What is documentary? Can documentary film reflect reality? How it reflect reality? Those questions related to the Truth in documentary film arise various debates in academia. The focus of this paper is on the Truth Theory of documentary, and the paper concentrates on four different comprehensive approaches toward the perception of the Truth in terms of (a) fundamentalism, (b) correspondence theory, (c) ethical turn, and (d) turn to speech and communicative act in studies of documentary film.The first two approaches of perceptions of the Truth help us to clarify controversial debates in the past decades while the latter two approaches provide new ways of thinking and allow us to abandon traditional schema of Reality. The paper explores that the reason caused debates on the Truth in documentary film is vague usages and misemployments of key concepts. In order to solve these debates, we shall not only clarify all key concepts but also reconsider the characteristics of documentary in filming. Additionally, documentary film, as a popular social communicative means, requires leading Ethics and social practical context into original epistemological discussion of the Truth.