The ‘unreel’ in Woody Allen’s <i>Zelig</i>

Abstract

By presenting Zelig (1983) in the form of a historical documentary using archival film footage, film - director Woody Allen breaks down the conventional distinction between documentary and fiction film. Through metacinematic self-consciousness Zelig hybridly 'chameleonizes’ recorded historical 'truth' exposing this truth to be ‘unreal’: it explodes the notion of the cinematic ‘real’, turning it into the ‘unreel’.