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Documentary Film
128 | CCN: 46884
Alina Predescu
4 Units
This class will provide a history of documentary film, and in so doing engage with the theory and practice of documentary filmmaking. We shall consider the auteurs, ethics, genres, and technologies of this film form, from its origins to today. Recurring themes and considerations will include authority, immersion, objectivity, surveillance, and travel. We will watch documentaries that are experimental, exploitative, longitudinal, phony, scientific—and frankly bizarre. Our work in the class will mirror the object of study: we shall study the essay-film, as well as write essays about film; we shall screen the history of the documentary, and practice writing documentary history.
Screenings may include films from Apted, Flaherty, Herzog, Morris, Painlevé, Varda, Vertov, Welles, and Wiseman.