DOCUMENTARY HISTORY AND THEORY

FILM 161 FALL 2006

M/W 7:00-9:40pmStudio C/ Communications Building

INSTRUCTOR: Irene Gustafson

[email is best way to reach me] 831.459 1498 Communications 125

OFFICE HOURS :Tuesday 2-4pm and by appointment

TEACHING ASSISTANT : Fabian Redrovan

OFFICE HOURS :

C O U R S E O V E R V I E W

This course examines the “documentary” through a series of questions: What defines this genre or mode? And who defines it? What “truths” can documentary claim? How and when can these claims be made? In addressing these questions this course considers the documentary film or video in relation to a wide variety of contexts--- historical, political, and aesthetic. During the first half of the quarter we will study the documentary ‘canon’—a set of historically important films and established discourses. Over the second half we will more closely examine a discrete form of non fiction production and reception--- the film/video essay.

Our class time together will typically include:

 Two weekly screenings, lectures, and on occasion, small group discussion.

 Each class period will begin with a lecture that contextualizes the week’s screenings and readings.

R E Q U I R E M E N T S F O R R E C E I V I N G C R E D I T

Attendance is mandatory; punctuality is required. Four unexcused absences, excessive lateness,and/or excessive absences at screenings will result in a NO PASS

 You are expected to inform the Instructor of any emergency situations that require your absence from class

 You are responsible for accessing and reading the required course materials before each class meeting

 Late papers/assignments WILL affect your grade

 In order to receive credit for the class, students must turn in all assignments

 Grade Breakdown:

 Attendance + Participation10%

Reading Summaries20%

Assignment #125%

Assignment #225%

Final Exam20%

Reading Summaries.

You will be turning in weekly reading summaries. These are due each Wednesday at the beginning of class--- typed, double spaced, normal margins. The summaries should be 3-6 paragraphs in length [per article]. In this writing you should do the following:

• summarize the main argument and/or logic of the article. What is the author arguing and why?

• summarize the ‘building blocks’ of the argument. What enables the author to assert her claims?

• you may critique the article but you must also sufficiently summarize it

• your summaries will be given back to you for use and reference during the final exam

R E A D I N G

REQUIRED:

Bill Nichols, Introduction to Documentary [Bloomington: Indiana University Press] 2001

ISBN: 0-253-21469-6 [AVAILABLE AT THE BAYTREE BOOKSTORE]

Articles available from course website as PDF files.

S C H E D U L E

1Monday September 25

Introduction and Admissions

Methodologies and Approaches

Screening: Nanook of the North [France, 1922, Robert Flaherty, 79 min.] DVD1666

Wednesday September 27

Screening: excerpts from Nanook of the North

Song of Ceylon [UK, 1934, Basil Wright, 30 min.] VT2468 v. 3

Reading due:• Fatimah Tobing Rony, ”Taxidermy and Romantic Ethnography” in The Third Eye: Race, Cinema, and Ethnographic Spectacle [Durham: Duke University Press, 1996]

2Monday October 2

Screening: Granton Trawler [UK, 1934, John Grierson, 11 min.] VT2468 v.2

Rain [Holland, Joris Ivens, 1929, 30 min.] VT9568

Reading due:• Bill Nichols, “Introduction” [Textbook]

• John Grierson, “First Principles of Documentary” inNonfiction Film: Theory and Criticism, ed. by Richard Meran Barsam [New York: Dutton, 1976]

• Andre Bazin, “The Ontology of the Photographic Image” in What is Cinema vol.1, translated by Hugh Gray [Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967]

Wednesday October 4

Screening: The River [USA, 1937, Pare Lorentz, 31 min.] VT7856

Land Without Bread [Spain, 1932, Buñuel, 43 min.] VT7253

Reading due:• Bill Nichols, “Chapter 1, 2” [Textbook]

• Paul Arthur, “Jargons of Authenticity” in Theorizing Documentary, ed. by Michael Renov [New York: Routledge, 1993]

READING SUMMARIES DUE

3Monday October 9

Screening: Enthusiasm [USSR, 1922, Dziga Vertov, 67 min.] VT8529

Reading due:• Bill Nichols, “Chapter 3” [Textbook]

• Dziga Vertov, “We: Variant on a Manifesto” and “The Council of Three” in Kino-eye: the writings of Dziga Vertov, ed by Annette Michelson; translated by Kevin O'Brien [Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984]

Wednesday October 11

Screening: Triumph of the Will [Germany, 1934, Leni Riefenstahl, 120 min.] DVD328

Reading due:• Bill Nichols, “Chapter 4 and 8” [Textbook]

• Frank P. Tomasulo, ”The Mass Psychology of Fascist Cinema: Leni Rienfenstahl’s Triumph of the Will” in Documenting the Documentary, ed. Grant and Sloniowski [Detroit: Wayne State University, 1998]

READING SUMMARIES DUE

4Monday October 16

Screening: EXCERPTS from Triumph of the Will and

The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes [USA, 1971, Stan Brakhage, 32 min.] DVD1622

Reading due:• Bill Nichols, “Chapter 5” [Textbook]

• Bart Testa, “Seeing With Experimental Eyes” in Documenting the Documentary, ed. Grant and Sloniowski [Detroit: Wayne State University, 1998]

Wednesday October 18

Screening: Titicutt Follies [USA, 1967, Frederick Wiseman, 45 min.] VT9496

Reading due:• Bill Nichols, “Chapter 6” [Textbook]

• Dan Armstrong, “Wiseman’s Realm of Transgression: Titicut Follies, the Symbolic Father, and the Spectacle of Confinement” Cinema Journal vol.29, no.1 [Fall 1989]

• Barry Keith Grant, “Ethnography in the First Person” in Documenting the Documentary, ed. Grant and Sloniowski [Detroit: Wayne State University, 1998]

READING SUMMARIES DUE

5Monday October 23

Screening: Portrait of Jason [USA, 1967, Shirley Clarke, 90 min.]TBA

Reading due:• Bill Nichols, “Chapter 7” [Textbook]

• Bill Nichols, “Performing Documentary” in Blurred Boundaries: Questions of Meaning in Contemporary Culture [Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994]

• Melissa Anderson, “The Vagaries of Verite: on Shirley Clarke’s Portrait of Jason” Film Comment 35.6 (Nov 1999)

Wednesday October 25

Screening: The Thin Blue Line [USA, 1967, Errol Morris, 90 min.]DVD2949

Reading due:• Linda Williams, “Truth, History, and ‘The Thin Blue Line” in Documenting the Documentary, ed. Grant and Sloniowski [Detroit: Wayne State University, 1998]

ASSIGNMENT #1 DUE AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS

______THE ESSAY FILM/VIDEO______

6Monday October 31

Screening: The Gleaners and I [France, 2000, Agnes Varda, 107 min] DVD1755

Reading due:• Paul Arthur, “Essay Questions” Film Comment 39:1 [Jan/Feb 2003]

Wednesday November 1

Screening: Tongues Untied [USA, 1989, Marlon Riggs, 55min.] VT 2339

Reading due:• Phillip Lopate, ”In Search of the Centaur: The Essay-Film” in Beyond Document ed. Charles Warren [Hanover: University Press of New England, 1996]

• Sheila Petty, “ Silence and Its Opposite: Expressions of Race in Tongues Untied” in Documenting the Documentary, ed. Grant and Sloniowski [Detroit: Wayne State University, 1998]

READING SUMMARIES DUE

7Monday November 6

Screening: Far From Poland [USA, 1984, Jill Godmilow, 109 min.] VT 4940

Reading due:• Paul Graham, “The Age of the Essay”

• Peter Thompson, “The Cinematic Essay: The Cine What?”

Wednesday November 8

Screening: History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige [USA, 1991, Rea Tajiri, 32 min.] VT3683

Reading due:• Keith Beattie, “The Camera I: Autobiographical Documentary” in Documentary Screens: Nonfiction Film and Television [New York: Palgrave, 2004]

READING SUMMARIES DUE

8Monday November 13

Screening: Fahrenheit 9/11 [USA, 2004, Michael Moore, 122 min.] TBA

Reading due:TBA

Wednesday November 15

Screening: A Spy in the House That Ruth Built [USA, 1989, Vanalyne Green, 30 min.] TBA

Reading due:• Michael Renov, “Video Confessions” in Resolutions: Contemporary Video Practices, ed. Renov and Suderburg [Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996]

READING SUMMARIES DUE

9Monday November 20

Screening: Coffee Colored Children [UK, 1988, Ngozi Onwurah, 15 min.] VT3599

Reading due:• Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, “ Ngozi Onwurah, a different concept and agenda” in Women filmmakers of the African and Asian Diaspora: Decolonizing the Gaze, Locating Subjectivity [Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1997]

• Trinh T. Minh-ha, “The Totalizing Quest of Meaning” in Theorizing Documentary, ed. by Michael Renov [New York: Routledge, 1993]

READING SUMMARIES DUE

Wednesday November 22

Screening: Reassemblage [USA, 1982, Trinh T. Hinh-ha, 40 min.] VT9479

Reading due:• Nancy N. Chen + Trinh T. Minh-ha, “Speaking Nearby” in Visualizing Theory

ed. Lucien Taylor [New York: Routledge, 1994]

• Bill Nichols, “The Ethnographer’s Tale” in Visualizing Theory ed. Lucien Taylor [New York: Routledge, 1994]

[THANKSGIVING WEEKEND]

10Monday November 27

Screening: Spin [USA, 1993, Brian Singer, 57 min.] VT3697

Reading due:• Patricia Zimmerman, “Pirates of the New World Image Orders” in States of

Emergency: Documentaries, Wars, Democracies [Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000]

Wednesday November 29

Screening: Lost Book Found [USA, 1996, Jem Cohen, 37 min.] TBA

ASSIGNMENT #2 DUE AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS

FINAL EXAM Monday, Dec. 4 7:30–10:30 P.M

______A C A D E M I C I N T E G R I T Y

A note on academic integrity, plagiarism, and intellectual work:

At the university we are continually engaged with other people’s ideas: we read them in books, hear them in lecture, discuss them with our friends, engage with them on a personal level, and incorporate them into our own writing. As a result, it is very easy to blur the lines between our own intellectual work and the work of others. But, it is important that we give credit where it is due. Plagiarism is using others’ ideas and words without clearly acknowledging the source of that information.

To avoid plagiarism, you must give credit whenever you use

• another person’s idea, opinion, or theory;

• any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings—any pieces of information—that are not common knowledge;

• quotations of another person’s actual written words and/or spoken words; or

• paraphrase of another person’s spoken or written words.

The UCSC “Official University Policy on Academic Integrity for Undergraduate Students” can be found at:

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Film 165A Fall 06