SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION

CMNS 322-4

Dr. Zoë Druick SFU Vancouver, day

778-782-5398; K 9664 Fall 2009

DOCUMENTARY MEDIA

Course Description:

In recent years, documentary media have become ubiquitous. At their best, these productions can make viewers conscious not only about the constructed nature of stories about reality, but even of reality itself. For that reason, documentary has become one of the most important–and often controversial–forms of mass media. In this course, students will be introduced to the history and theory of documentary film, focusing on a range of examples from the 1920s to the present. We will explore the shifting definitions of documentary and realism through subjects such as re-enactments, state propaganda, observational cinema, archival footage and fair use, docudrama, autobiographical documentary, fake documentary, and animated and musical documentary. By the end of the course, students will have developed historical and theoretical perspectives on problems of documentary and will have considered the all-important ethical issues surrounding the representation of the real world.

The four-hour class period will be divided into lectures, discussions and screenings. Readings, screenings, tutorials and lectures are complementary aspects of the course. Students are expected to do the readings each week in advance of the class and come to tutorial prepared to participate.

Prerequisite: CMNS 220, FPA 135, FPA 136, or FPA 137; 60 credits

Required reading:

Bill Nichols, Introduction to Documentary, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003.

Readings available on-line at: http://www.sfu.ca/~druick/

Assignments:

Short essay (due October 8) 20%

Term paper proposal (due by October 29) 5%

Term paper (due November 19) 30%

Take home final (due December 10, by 4:30) 35%

Tutorial participation and attendance 10%

Late assignments will be subject to penalty.

A note on academic standards:

Academic cheating of any sort is considered to be an affront to the academic pursuits we are collectively engaged in and will be dealt with severely. Please ensure that you are familiar with SFU’s code of academic honesty (www.sfu.ca/policies/teaching/t10-02.htm). If you have any question about what constitutes plagiarism, please talk to the professor or TA. The onus is on you to know the rules.

The school expects that the grades awarded in this course will bear some reasonable relation to established university-wide practices with respect to both levels and distribution of grades. In addition, the School will follow Policy T10.02 with respect to “Intellectual Honesty” and “Academic Discipline” (see the current Calendar, General Regulations section).

Recommendations for further reading (on reserve at Belzberg Library):

Bruzzi, Stella. New Documentary: A Critical Introduction. London: Routledge, 2000.

Grant, Barry Keith. Voyages of Discovery: The Cinema of Frederick Wiseman. Urbana, Il: University of Illinois Press, 1992.

Grant, Barry Keith and Jeannette Sloniowski, eds. Documenting the Documentary. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1998.

Lipkin, Steven. Reel Emotional Logic: Film and Television Docudrama as Persuasive Practice. Carbondale, Il: Southern Illinois University Press, 2002.

Renov, Michael, ed. Theorizing Documentary. NY: Routledge, 1993.

Renov, Michael. The Subject of Documentary. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2004

Rhodes, Gary D. & John Parris Springer, eds. Docufictions: Essays on the Intersection of Documentary and Fictional Filmmaking. London: McFarland, 2006.

Roscoe, Jane & Craig Hight, Faking It: Mock-documentary and the Subversion of Factuality. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001.

Rosenthal, Alan, ed. Why docudrama? Fact-Fiction on Film and TV. Carbondale, Il: Southern Illinois University Press, 1999.

Saunders, Doug. Direct Cinema: Observational Documentary and the Politics of the Sixties. London: Wallflower, 2007.

Swann, Paul. The British Documentary Film Movement, 1926-1946. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

Waldman, Diane & Janet Walker, eds. Feminism and Documentary. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999.

A note about the films:

Whenever possible, the films and videos shown in class will be available for reviewing in the Belzberg Library.


Course Schedule:

Sept. 10 Week 1: Introduction: Documentary as genre

Readings: Nichols, Introduction and Chapter 1

Screening: Nanook of the North (USA, dir. Robert Flaherty, 1922, 79’)

Sept. 17 Week 2: Documenting the “Other”

Readings: Nichols, Chapters 2 & 3

Clips: Nanook Revisited; In the Land of the Head Hunters

Screening: Rain (Netherlands, dir. Mannus Franken & Joris Ivens, 1932, 12’)

Man with a Movie Camera (Soviet Union, dir. Dziga Vertov, 1929, 68’)

Sept. 24 Week 3: The Avant-garde

Readings: Nichols, Chapters 4 & 5

Dziga Vertov, selections from Kino Eye

Clips: Berlin: Symphony of a Great City

Recommended: Victor Shklovsky, “Art as Technique”

Screening: Night Mail (UK, dir. Basil Wright & Harry Watt, 1936, 25’)

London Can Take it (UK, dir. Humphrey Jennings, 1940, 9’)

The River (USA, dir. Pare Lorenz, 1938, 31’)

Paul Tomkowicz: Street-Railway Switchman (Canada, Roman Kroiter, 1953, 9’)

October 1 Week 4: Documentary and Citizenship

Readings: Nichols, Chapter 7

Paul Swann, “The British Documentary Film Movement,” in The British Documentary Film Movement, 1-20.

Tom Waugh, “Acting to Play Oneself: Notes on Performance in Documentary,” in Making Visible the Invisible, 64-91.

Clips: Grierson; Triumph of the Will

Screening: Culloden (UK, dir. Peter Watkins, 1964, 69’)

The War Game (UK, dir. Peter Watkins, 1965, 48’)

Oct. 8 Week 5: A Television Aesthetic: Peter Watkins

Readings: Nichols, Chapter 6

Joseph A. Gomez, “The BBC Years: Culloden and The War Game,” in Peter Watkins, 33-66.

Clips: La Commune

Screening: Lonely Boy (Canada, dir. W. Koenig & R. Kroitor, 1962, 27’)

Dont Look Back (USA, dir. D.A. Pennebaker, 1967, 96’)

Oct. 15 Week 6: Observational Cinema looks at Popular Culture

Readings: Barry Keith Grant, “From Obscurity in Ottawa to Fame in Freedomland,” in Candid Eyes, 48-59.

Jeanne Hall, “‘Don’t You Ever Just Watch?’” in Documenting the Documentary, 223-37.

Clips: Cinéma Vérité: Defining the Moment

Screening: High School (USA, dir. Frederick Wiseman, 1968, 75’)

Oct. 22 Week 7: Observational Cinema looks at Institutional Life

Readings: Bill Nichols, “Fred Wiseman’s Documentaries: Theory and Structure,” Film Quarterly 31, 3: 15-28.

Barry Keith Grant, “American Madness,” in Voyages of Discovery, 42-78.

Clips: Hospital; Titicut Follies; Primate

Screening: The Gleaners and I (France, dir. Agnes Varda, 2000, 82’)

Oct. 29 Week 8: Documentary and the Autobiographical Persona

Essay proposal due at beginning of lecture

Readings: Paul Arthur, “Jargons of Authenticity,” in Theorizing Documentary, 108-34.

Sandy Flitterman-Lewis, “Varda: The Gleaner and the Just,” in Situating the Feminist Gaze and Spectatorship in Postwar Cinema, 214-225.

Clips: Sherman’s March; Far From Poland; Roger and Me; Kurt and Courtney

Screening: Little Dieter Needs to Fly (USA, dir. Werner Herzog, 1997, 80’)

Nov. 5 Week 9: Performance and the Ecstatic Truth

Readings: Brad Prager, “War and Trauma,” in The Cinema of Werner Herzog: Aesthetic Ecstasy and Truth, 142-170

Werner Herzog, “Fact and Truth,” in Herzog on Herzog, 238-272.

Clips: Grizzly Man

Screening: Bontoc Eulogy (USA/Philippines, dir. Marlon Fuentes, 1995)

Nov. 12 Week 10: Archival Footage and Fair Use

Readings: Martin Fuentes, “Extracts from an imaginary interview: Questions and Answers about Bontoc Eulogy,” in F is for Phony, 116-129.

Pat Aufderheide and Peter Jaszi, Untold Stories: Creative Consequences of the Rights Clearance Culture.” Available at: www.centerforsocialmedia.org/rock/backgrounddocs/printable_rightsreport.pdf

Clips: The Ballad of Crowfoot; History and Memory

Screening: My Winnipeg (Canada, dir. Guy Maddin, 2007)

Nov. 19 Week 11: Docu-fictions

Essay due at the beginning of lecture

Readings: Alexandra Juhasz and Jesse Lerner, “Introduction: Phony Definitions and Troubling Taxonomies of the Fake Documentary,” in F is for Phony, 1-35.

Guy Maddin, My Winnipeg (Coach House Press).

Clips: Babakiueria; London; 24 City

Screening: Standard Operating Procedure (USA, dir. Errol Morris, 2008, 116’)

Nov. 26 Week 12: Reviving the Interview

Readings: Julia Lesage, “Torture Documentaries,” Jump Cut 51 (Spring 2009). Available at http://www.ejumpcut.org/currentissue/TortureDocumentaries/text.html

Devin Orgeron & Marsha Orgeron, “Megatronic Memories: Errol Morris and the Politics of Witnessing,” in The Image and the Witness: Trauma, Memory and Visual Culture, 238-252.

Clips: The Thin Blue Line; Fog of War; Road to Guantanamo

Screening: Waltz With Bashir (Israel, dir. Ari Folman, 2008, 90’)

Dec. 3 Week 13: Animated and Musical Documentaries

Take-home final handed out in class

Reading: Derek Paget and Jane Roscoe, “Giving Voice: Performance and Authenticity in the Documentary Musical” Parts I & II, in Jump Cut 48 (2006). Available at: www.ejumpcut.org/archive/jc48.2006/MusicalDocy/index.html

Paul Ward, “Animation and Documentary Representation,” in Documentary: The Margins of Reality, 83-99.

Screening: Songbirds (UK, dir. Brian Hill, 2005, 62’)

Take home final due by 4:30, December 10, 2009. Please deliver a hard copy to either the continuing studies office at Harbour Centre or the School of Communication main office in Burnaby. **LATE EXAMS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED**

5