Course Purposes and Objectives:
1)To survey significant historical developments in documentary
film and video; 2) to examine contemporary documentary approaches and
issues;
and 3) to perform historical and critical research upon documentary
films
and videos.
Required Readings:
Ellis, Jack C., and McLane, Betsy A, A New History of Documentary
Film, London & New York: Continuum, 2005
Rosenthal, Alan, ed., New Challenges for Documentary, 2nd
edition, University of Manchester Press,
2005, & University of California Press, 1987 (On Library Reserve.
Nichols, Bill, Introduction to Documentary, Indiana University
Press, 2001.
Nichols, Bill, Representing Reality: Issues and Concepts in
Documentary,
Indiana University Press, 1991.
(On Library Reserve) Nichols, Bill, ed., Movies and Methods Vol.
II, University of California Press, 1985, “Roger & Me” File, and
Nichols,
Bill, Blurred Boundaries, IU Press, 1994.
Requirements (due dates; grade %):
Grades are calculated on a numerical ten point
scale (92.5+=A, etc.) Papers are
late after 9:10 am on Mon. Dec. 2 and drop
10 points & 10 more pts. every 24 hrs. thereafter
A midterm examination (Oct 21; 25%)
A (8-10 pp double-spaced) research paper (Dec 2; 30%)
A (10 minute) oral summary of research findings and class
participation
(20%)
A final examination (Dec. 11; 25%)
Schedule:
Aug 26 Introduction
Documentary History
31 Early History
of Nonfiction Film: Actualities: “Lumiere films”; Newsreels; "Image of
an Assassination"; YouTube
Sep 2 Early Ethnographic
Documentary: Flaherty’s
“Nanook of the North”; "In the Land of the Headhunters"; "At the Time
of Whaling," "Jesus Camp"
9 Soviet
Social Realism; “Potemkin” “Man with a Movie Camera”, "Kino
Pravda", "Suite Habana"
14 Avant
Garde
Documentary: “Rain,” “Ballet Mechanique,” “Un Chien Andalou,” "Las
Hurdes,"
“Berlin, Symphony of a City,” and “Rien Que Les Heures”,
"Koyannasqatsi"
16 British &
German
Government Docs: “Song of Ceylon,” “Housing Problems,” “Night Mail,”
“Triumph
of the Will,” “Listen to Britain,” "Death of the Dinosaurs"
21 American Newsreel
Compilation Documentary: “March of Time”, "60 Minutes," "Why We Fight"
(Jarecki)
23 American
Government Documentary: “The River” and “Why We Fight”(Capra), "Why
Vietnam?"
28 Postwar
Documentary:
“The Quiet One;” “City of Gold;” “Night & Fog”: "Into the Arms of
Strangers"
30 American Television
Documentary: “Harvest of Shame”; "New Harvest, Old Shame"
Oct 5 Cinema Verite and Direct
Cinema: “Primary”
and “Jean Rouch”; "Supersize Me"; "The War Room", "Journeys With George"
7 British
Free Cinema and Pseudo-Verite Television Documentary: “Everyday Except
Christmas,” “We are the Lambeth Boys,” “Culloden,” & “The War
Game”, "Blair Witch Project"
12 Beyond
Verite:
“Vietnam, In the Year of the Pig”; "Fog of War"
14
Questioning
Truth and Mixing Modes: “Thin Blue Line”
19 “Thin Blue
Line” (continued); Review
21 MIDTERM
EXAMINATION
Documentary Approaches and Issues
26 Expository
Documentary: “The Panama Deception”
28 Observational
Documentary: “Streetwise”
Nov 2 Interactive Documentary:
“Who Killed Vincent
Chin?”
4
Reflexive Documentary: “Daughter Rite” & “Reassemblage”
9
Narrative
in Documentary: “Roses in December” and “Salvador”
11 Feminist
Observational Documentary: “Soldier Girls”
16 Feminist
Expository and Interactive Documentary: “Coal Mining Women” and
“The
Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter”
18 Ethics,
Modes,
and [Re-] Enactments: “No Lies”, "Borat"
23 Ethics II:
Public’s right to know versus person’s right to privacy; “In Search of
Our Fathers”
30 “Sherman’s
March" & "Bright Leaves"
Dec 2 Ethics III:
Manipulative History; “Roger & Me”; RESEARCH PAPER DUE
7 “Roger & Me” continued
"Bowling for
Columbine," "Ferenheit 911," and "Sicko"
9
Postmodernism
and Documentary; Review
11 FINAL
EXAMINATION 8:00 A.M..
THE DOCUMENTARY IDEA Comm Studies 645 Fall 2006
Required Readings:
Ellis, Jack C. & McLane, Betsy A., A New History of
Documentary Film, London & New York: Continuum, 2005
Rosenthal, Alan, ed., New Challenges for Documentary,
2nd
Edition, Manchester University Press, 2005 (Rosenthal I)
& ( On Libary Rerserve) New Challenges for Documentary, University
of California Press, 1987 (Rosenthal II).
Nichols, Bill, Introduction to Documentary, Indiana University
Press, 2001 (Nichols I) & Representing Reality: Issues and Concepts
in Documentary, Indiana University Press, 1991. (Nichols II)
(On Library Reserve) Nichols, Bill, ed., Movies and Methods Vol.
II, University of California Press, 1985. (Nichols III), “Roger
&
Me” File, and Nichols, Bill, Blurred Boundaries, Indiana University
Press,
1994 (Nichols IV).
Recommended Reading
Grant, Barry Keith & Sloniowski, Jeannette, Documenting the
Documentary, Wayne State University Press, 1998.
Schedule:
Ellis
Rosenthal I & [II] Nichols I
&[II]
Library Reserve: Nichols III, IV & [Grant]
Aug 26 1-6
xi-xviii;20-41
[11-22]
31 6-11
82-87
Sep 2 12-26
[210-226]
[23-39]
9 27-43
[40-69]
14 44-56
[70-82]
16
57-76;105-129
[83-118; 154-170]
21 77-80
23 80-104;130-147
[119-135]
28
148-178
79-93;[133-147]
30
179-195 48-58; 267-279;[345-357;375-388]
Oct 5 208-227
280-326;[34-47;389-401]
[188-203; 223-253]
7
196-207
110-120;[592-603]
[171-187; 360-378]
12
227-257
[165-179]
233-258; 274-287
14 258-339
59-78
[379-396]
19
21
26
17-33;[48-63]
99-109;[32-38]
258-273
28
109-115;[38-44]
Nov 2
115-124;[44-56]
4
34-47;[64-77]
125-130;[56-75]
359-369
9
1-19;[229-266]
11
[554-570]
42-81;139-177
16
[78-102]
18
209-219; 230-241;[332-341]
[76-103]
[318-332]
23
181-208;[245-287; 308-318]
30
[333-343]
Dec 2
363-434
“Roger & Me” File
7
253-266
[397-445]
9
121-127
130-138
Nichols IV
RESEARCH PAPER AND ORAL PRESENTATION GUIDELINES
The Documentary Idea
Your typewritten 8-10 page, double-spaced critical/research paper is due at the beginning of class on Wednesday, December 2, 2009.
You should select a paper topic in consultation with your instructor that requires you to view and critically analyze at least three documentaries, no more than one of which should be listed on the syllabus to be screened in class, in terms of their stylistic approaches (or modes), content, and the histocial contexts of their production and reception. You should perform extensive library research into the social and historical contexts within which these films were produced, disseminated, and viewed. Your approach to your topic can be primarily theoretical/critical rather than historical, but it should include some aspects of both perspectives.
For example, you might select several documentaries relevant to a specific historical development, such as cinema verite or direct cinema during the 1960s. On the other hand, you might select several documentaries relevant to a specific (theoretical/critical) mode or approach, such as interactive or observational documentary. A paper focusing upon direct cinema might be primarily historical in approach, but it should also make some reference to relevant theoretical/critical concepts such as observational cinema. A paper focusing upon observational cinema might be primarily theoretical/critical in approach, but it should also make some reference to relevant historical developments, such as direct cinema.
Adopting a historical approach, you might select several documentaries produced by the same individual or production unit and then examine their development over time in terms of similarities and differences in their stylistic approaches or modes of documentary, content, and the socio-historical contexts of their production and distribution. On the other hand, you might select several documentaries produced within the same historical period by different individuals or production units which reflect similarities (as well as differences) in stylisitic approach, ethical issues, and/or theoretical ideas. Individual filmmakers and production units might include Robert Flaherty, Richard Leacock, Leni Riefenstahl, Ross McElwee, Emile de Antonio, Errol Morris, Michael Moore, Barbara Trent, Trinh T. Minh-ha, the British General Post Office (GPO), and/or the National Film Board of Canada. Rather than focusing upon one of these filmmakers or production units, you might select documentaries by several of them and/or others that are relevant to a specific historical development or a theoretical/critical concept, such as cinema verite, direct cinema, historical compilation, newsreel, city symphony, ethnographic, expository, observational, interactive, reflexive, feminist, postmodernist, or autobiographical documentary films.
ORAL PRESENTATION OF PRELIMINARY RESEARCH FINDINGS
Prepare a ten-minute oral summary of your preliminary research
findings
to be presented by you on the class date at which an “in-class”
film/video
which might be analyzed in your paper will be screened, but do not
select
and analyze more than one film/video which appears on the
syllabus.
You may screen a very short clip from one of the other films analyzed
in
your paper during your oral presentation.