The cinema for Otlet: a document “substitute of the book”

Abstract

In science, films are an important aid for presentation, demonstration, documentation, and/or information. They serve to expose any subject by means of the word and the images; a scientist can keep in his drawers (i. e., an archaeologist) reproductions of all his acts and objects relative to its science and to analyze them in depth, without having to move, the slow or fast motion serving to evidence facts and to understand phenomena that before were incomprehensible (insect’s flight, medical applications, sports, etc). In education the most expressive method is the cinema, that reproduces facts and objects and facilitates by mean of drawings and schemes to understand phenomena. It is difficult to classify film because it can simultaneously be a documentary, scientific, educative and even commercial. The main characteristic of scientific films is derived from the presence of the word, sound, movement and colour.