Reading Assignments

The reading load for this course is quite heavy, though the number of reading assignments will vary from week to week. Even though lectures may not draw on the reading directly, it is imperative that you complete the readings in a timely manner. The variety and range of readings are deliberately designed to enhance your understanding of the films and the topic of each weekly class. Readings due for a given week are to be done before the class meets.

Written Requirements:

There will two formal short essays and one longer analytic term paper. In addition, there will be informal brief papers assigned weekly. The student is responsible for completing four of twelve assignments.

Formal Essays:

3 – 4 page short paper on a “classic” documentary film.  An assignment prompt will be provided by the instructor. Students will be provided with a list of ten films and will have the opportunity to choose one of three questions to answer regarding their chosen title.  The short essay will be due in class Week 4.

4 – 5 page short essay on an influential feature length documentary film. As with the first short paper students will be required to answer one of three questions from an assignment prompt provided by the instructor. Students may choose to write about any feature length animated documentary. The second short essay will be due Week 7.

10 - 15 page term paper on a recent documentary (one released after 1990) on a topic of the student’s choosing. This longer essay will require an explicitly developed and stated thesis, bibliographic research, close analysis of the texts(s) and an engagement with the theoretical background of documentary and realism as delineated in one or more of the assigned readings. While students will select their own topic and film(s), the thesis must engage the larger themes of the class.  

Informal Essays:

In addition to the formal essays, students will be asked to submit a series of informal “response” essays. These papers are to be at least two, but no more than four, pages in length. A separate hand out sheet will be distributed the first day of class and posted on the course’s Moodle site. These papers will be collected each week at the beginning of class. These are not meant to be scholarly essays or research papers – they are merely your personal reactions to the instructor’s question or suggestion.  In other words, these are informal responses to issues raised by well-known documentary films. You may write in a casual, conversational voice if you choose.  They will not be graded.  In order to receive full credit, you need only to complete each one in a conscientious and timely manner. It is your responsibility to keep up with the number of informal essays that you have completed.

Students will be given twelve questions, from which they must choose five. Which ones you select is entirely up to you, but you will not be allowed to make up any entries that you miss.  Papers submitted late will not be accepted. They are due only on the date indicated on the hand out. Please plan accordingly. Each journal entry will be worth 19 points towards the informal essay grade.  Partial credit for inadequately completed papers will be awarded at the discretion of the instructor.

Individual Presentation:

As part of the course requirements, you are obligated to present to the class an analysis of a documentary that you would consider to be significant, whether recent or released in the past. This is not optional. Beginning Week 5 students will be asked to give a brief (10 minute) presentation on a film not screened in class and to explain how it exemplifies some aspect of documentary practice. If Student chooses to do so, the presentation may be related to their term paper research. Students will be asked to follow instructions provided on a presentation assignment prompt. In addition, each student must provide a handout to the class that summarizes the main points of your discussion.

Course Schedule:

Session One: True Stories: An Introduction to Documentary

Screening:
True Stories (David Byrne, 1986)
Bob Roberts (Tim Robbins, 1993)

Session Two: Ethnography

Screening:
Nanook of the North (Robert Flaherty 1922) 79 min.

Excerpts:
King Kong (Merian Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack, 1933)
Dead Birds (Robert Gardner, 1965)

Readings:
Bill Nichols, Introduction to Documentary Chapter One.
Ellis and McLane New History of Documentary p. 1 – 27
David Bordwell and Kristen Thompson “Form and Meaning” in Film Art: 6^th Edition New York: McGraw Hill, 2001, p. 46 – 49
William Rothman “Filmmaker as Hunter” in Barry Keith Grant Documenting the Documentary, pp. 23 – 39
Michael Renov “Introduction: The Truth About Non-Fiction Film” in Renov, Chapter One, p. 1 – 11

Session Three: Mediating Reality

Screening:
Man With A Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929) 54 min.

Readings:
Nichols, Chapter Two
Seth Feldman “Peace Between Man and Machine” in Grant, p. 40 – 54
Ellis and McLane, p. 27 – 44
Michael Renov “Towards a Poetics of the Documentary” in Renov, Chapter Two, p. 12 - 36
Bruzzi, Part One, p. 1 - 72

Session Four: Direct Cinema

Screening:
Don’t Look Back (D.A. Pennebaker, 1967) 96 min.

Excerpt:
Primary (Robert Drew, Richard Leacock, 1960)
A Chronicle of a Summer (Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin, 1960)

Readings:
Nichols, Chapter Three
Ellis & McLane, p. 208 - 227
Jeanne Hall “Don’t You Ever Just Watch” in Grant, p. 223 – 238
Barry Keith Grant “Ethnography in the First Person” in Grant, p. 238 – 253
Bruzzi, Part Two, p. 73 - 120

Session Five: Social Justice

Screening:
Thin Blue Line (Errol Morris 1987) 105 min.

Readings:
Nichols, Chapter Seven
Linda Williams, “Mirrors Without Memories: Truth, History, and the New Documentary,” in Grant, p. 379 – 396
Ellis & McLane, p. 258 – 292
Bruzzi, Part Two, p. 120 - 152

Session Six: Compilation Films

Screening:
The Atomic Café (Jayne Loader, Kevin Rafferty, 1982) 92 min.

Readings:
Nichols Chapter Six
Ellis & McLane, p. 293 – 325
Jim Leach “Poetics of Propaganda” in Grant, p. 154 – 170
Bruzzi, Part Three, p. 153 - 185

Session Seven: Poetic Monologues

Screening:
Baraka (Ron Fricke, 1992)

Excerpt:        
Koyaanisqatsi (Godfrey Reggio, 1983)

Readings:
Ellis & McLane, p. 326 – 341
Michael Dempsey, “Quatsi Means Life: The Films of Godfrey Reggio,” Film Quarterly, 42 (Spring 1989): p. 2-12
Bart Testa “Seeing With Experimental Eyes” in Grant, p. 269 –285

Session Eight: History, Memory, Mourning

Screening:
4 Little Girls (Spike Lee, 1997) 102 min.
Night and Fog (Alain Renais, 1955)

Readings:
Ellis & McLane, p. 77 – 104
Sally Flitterman Lewis “Documenting The Ineffable” in Grant, p. 204 – 222
Sheila Petty “Silence and It’s Opposite” in Grant, p. 416 – 428
Philip Rosen, “Document and Documentary: On the Persistence of some Historical Concepts,” in Renov, Chapter Four p. 58 - 89

Session Nine: Satire

Screening:
Roger and Me (Michael Moore, 1989) 91 min.
Supersize Me (Morgan Spurlock, 2005)

Readings:
Nichols, Chapter Four and Five
Matthew Bernstein “Documentaphobia and Mixed Modes” in Grant, p. 397 – 415
Paul Arthur “Jargons of Authenticity (Three American Moments),” in Renov, Chapter Six, p. 108-134
Bruzzi, Part Three, p. 185 - 218

Session Ten: Essay Films

Screening:
Sans Soleil (Chris Marker, 1982) 100 min.

Readings:
Joanne Hershfeld “Paradise Regained” in Grant, p. 55 – 69
Dianne Scheinman “The Dialogic Imagination of Jean Rouch” in Grant, p.188 – 203
Scott MacDonald “The Filmmaker as Global Circumnavigator” in Grant, p. 360 – 378
William Guynn “The Art of National Projection” in Grant, p. 83 – 98
Jeffrey Ruoff “A Bastard Union of Several Forms” in Grant, p. 286 – 301