Courses / Undergraduate

Fall 2020

  • Special Topics in Film: Documentary Now! Explorations in Contemporary Non-Fiction Film & Media

    170 | CCN: 32171 | 32172

    Jeffrey Skoller

    4 Units

    Lecture: Tu/Th 11am-12:30pm; Location: Dwinelle 188

    Screening: Tu 5pm-7pm; Location: Dwinelle 188

    We are in a golden age of Documentary film! Never before has non-fiction cinema been more popular with audiences, more diverse in its subject matter or more innovative in its forms and technologies. This course takes an in-depth look at recent modes of Documentary that are transforming our ideas about what non-fiction film is and what it can show us. The class examines key film and new media works using a range of innovative forms and technologies, that challenge traditional lines between fact and fiction, journalism and propaganda, the poetic and the analytic. We will explore interactive forms such as web-based, VR, and multi-platform Documentary, as well as archival and found films, re-enactment, observational film, animated-documentary, Documentary installation, as well as short and serial forms of Documentary.  At the same time we will continue to ask many of the traditional questions of Documentary studies: How do these films shape notions of truth, reality and point of view? What are the ethics and politics of representation and who speaks for whom when we watch a documentary?  What do documentaries make visible or conceal? What, if anything, constitutes objectivity? And just what is a document?

    Through weekly screenings, readings from recent Documentary theory and criticism, and the occasional visiting filmmaker, we will map the current terrain of cutting edge Documentary film and Media. Students will write a final paper.