50255 Documentary Study

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences: Writing and Contemporary Cultures
Credit points: 8 cp
Result Type: Grade, no marks

Requisite(s): 50136 Cinematic Cultures
These requisites may not apply to students in certain courses. See access conditions.

Handbook description

Documentary Study investigates the history of documentary film-making from the 1920s through to now, from the moment of Grierson, through the different moments of political documentary, cinema-verite, film and television docudrama, the essay documentary, 'mockumentary' and so on. In any given year, the course content emphasises one or more of these historical periods and subgenres, and takes its examples from a variety of national cinemas. The subject is also open to considering the impact on film and television documentary practice of various forms of prose documentary narrative, especially as some prose experiments in 'factual fictions' (In Cold Blood, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, The Executioner's Song, Huckstepp) overlap with the diversity of film and television documentary practice.

Subject objectives/outcomes

At the completion of this subject, students are expected to be able to:

Identify principal themes and issues in documentary screen studies.
Define and apply key terms and critical concepts associated with the theory and history of documentary film.
Recognise and critically evaluate different forms of documentary practice as employed in documentary works.
To identify ethical issues relating to documentary representations.

Contribution to graduate profile

Documentary Study supports the development of the following aspects of the Graduate Profile:

Have a broad range of skills and knowledge, making for creative and critically informed communications professionals
Have a critical knowledge of Australian cultural traditions, industries and institutions
Have a critical understanding of new media and contemporary cultural forms that support their writing in relation to these media and the formal innovations within them
Have a critical knowledge of cultural and aesthetic debates, and their implications for cultural policy developments
Have a strong awareness of the needs of specific communities and the ability to evaluate a range of strategies for dealing with cultural and social problems, and
Be able to function within groups and be sensitive to the multiple dimensions of social and cultural difference.

Teaching and learning strategies

Lectures, screenings, seminar discussions, written assignments, textual research, audio-visual research.

Content

Historical and theoretical perspectives on the development of documentary form.
Analysis of key critical concepts and contextual issues informing documentary theory.
Analysis of the relationship between style and content in documentaries.
Influence of technological developments on documentary.
Contemporary trends.

Assessment

Assessment item 1: An Analysis of a Documentary Film

Objectives	a, b, c
Due	Week 5
Value	25%
Task	Write a critical analysis of a recent documentary (in the last three years) that was released in cinemas (but not a film in this course). You should attempt to apply critical concepts associated with the documentary's approach, style and technique and to consider the film from social, political and ethical perspectives.
Max word length	1,200 words
Assessment criteria	Demonstrated ability to: Recognise and apply critical concepts pertaining to documentary film as introduced in lectures, seminars and subject readings. Analyse a documentary film in terms of its construction and meaning. Present the assignment in a coherently written and grammatically and typographically correct form with consistent scholarly referencing of sources.

Assessment item 2: Seminar Presentation

Objectives	a, b, c
Value	25%
Task	Besides being required to attend seminars on a regular basis and participate actively in class discussion you are also required to give a 15 -20 minute seminar presentation on one of the films shown in the course. You must hand in the notes on which your seminar presentation is based to your tutor. Your notes must be presented in a coherently written and grammatically and typographically correct form with consistent scholarly referencing of sources.
Assessment criteria	Demonstrated ability to: Recognise and apply specific critical concepts relevant to the interpretation of documentary as introduced in lecture, seminar or subject readings. Identify and critically evaluate themes and stylistic elements in documentary works screened on the week selected for the presentation as well as any additional works discussed in the presentation. Present the assignment in an effective and critically engaging form with consistent scholarly referencing of sources.

Assessment item 3: Essay

Objectives	Identify principal themes and issues in documentary screen studies. Define and apply key terms and critical concepts associated with the theory and history of documentary film. Recognise and critically evaluate different forms of documentary practice as employed in documentary works.
Due	Week 14
Value	50%
Task	A list of essay topics will be distributed in class by the end of Week 7.
Max word length	2,500 words
Assessment criteria	Demonstrated ability to: Identify and apply key concepts and themes in documentary screen studies in response to an essay question on a particular topic in this field. Demonstrate knowledge of a substantial amount of critical scholarship related to the topic. Develop a clear and well-supported (by scholarly references and examples from documentary works where relevant) argument in response to the essay question that indicates a familiarity with key critical positions and issues concerning the topic. Present the assignment in a coherently written and grammatically and typographically correct form with consistent scholarly referencing of sources.

Minimum requirements

Students are expected to read the subject outline to ensure they are familiar with the subject requirements. Since class discussion and participation in activities form an integral part of this subject, you are expected to attend, arrive punctually and actively participate in classes. If you experience difficulties meeting this requirement, please contact your lecturer. Students who have a reason for extended absence (e.g., illness) may be required to complete additional work to ensure they achieve the subject objectives.

Attendance is particularly important in this subject because it is based on a collaborative approach which involves essential workshopping and interchange of ideas. Students who attend fewer than ten classes are advised that their final work will not be assessed and that they are likely to fail the subject.

Indicative references

References:

Maxine Baker, Documentary in the Digital Age (Oxford: Focal Press, 2006)

Keith Beattie, Documentary Screens: Non-Fiction Film and Television (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2004)

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

Tony Barta, (ed) Screening the Past: Film and the Representation of History (Westport: Praeger, 1998)

Thomas W. Benson & Carolyn Anderson, Reality Fictions: The Films of Frederick Wiseman (Carbondale: Sthn. Illinois Uni. Press, 1989)

John Corner, The Art of the Record: A Critical Introduction to Documentary (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1996)

Leslie Devereaux & Roger Hillman, Fields of Vision (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995)

Jack C. Ellis & Betsy A. McLane, 'A New History of Documentary Film (New York: Continuum, 2005)

Jane M. Gaines, Jane M. & Michael Renov (eds.) Collecting Visible Evidence (Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1999)

B.K. Grant and J. Sloniowski (eds.), Documenting the Documentary: Close Readings of Documentary Film and Video (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1998)

Barry Grant, Voyages of Discovery: the Cinema of Frederick Wiseman, (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992).

Forsyth Hardy ed., Grierson on Documentary (London: Faber and Faber, 1966)

Alexandra Juhasz & Jesse Lerner, F is for Phony: Fake Documentary and Truth's Undoing (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006)

Richard Kilborn & John Izod, An Introduction to Television Documentary (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997)

Marcia Langton, 'Well, I Heard it on the Radio and I Saw it on the Television...': An Essay for the Australian Film Commission on the Politics and Aesthetics of Filmmaking by and about Aboriginal People and Things, The Commission, North Sydney, 1993

Kevin Macdonald and Mark Cousins, Imagining Reality: The Faber Book of the Documentary (London: Faber and Faber, 1996)

David MacDougall, Transcultural Cinema (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998)

Bill Nichols, Introduction to Documentary (Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2001)

Bill Nichols, Blurred Boundaries: Questions of Meaning in Contemporary Culture (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994)

Bill Nichols, Representing Reality: Issues and Concepts in Documentary (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991)

Carl R. Plantinga, Rhetoric and Representation in Nonfiction Film (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997)

Michael Renov, Theorizing Documentary, (New York: Routledge, 2003)

Jane Roscoe and Craig Hight, Faking it: Mock-documentary and the Subversion of Factuality (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001)

Renov, Michael (ed.) Theorizing Documentary (New York: Routledge, 1993)

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

Alan Rosenthal, The Documentary Conscience: a Casebook in Film making (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980)

Alan Rosenthal and John Corner (eds.) New Challenges for Documentary, 2nd ed. (Manchester: Manchester University Press: 2005)

William Rothman, Documentary Film Classics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997)

Jean Rouch (edited & trans. by Steven Feld), Ciné-Ethnography: Jean Rouch, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press: 2003

Dave Saunders, 'Wiseman and Civil Reform: Four Institutions' in Direct Cinema: Observational Documentary and the Politics of the Sixties (London: Wallflower Press, 2007)

Sharon Sherman, Documenting Ourselves (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1998)

Liz Stubbs, Documentary Filmmakers Speak (New York: Allworth Press, 2002)

D. Waldman & J. Walker, Feminism and Documentary (Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press. 1999)

Trinh T. Minh-ha, Framer Framed (New York: Routledge, 1992)

Dai Vaughan, For Documentary (Berkeley: Univ. California Press, 1999)

Paul Ward, Documentary: The Margins of Reality (London: Wallflower Press, 2005)

Brian Winston, Reclaiming the Real: The Griersonian Documentary and its Legitimation (London: British Film Institute, 1995)

Journals:

DOX - documentary film magazine

Media Information Australia (special on documentary November 1996, no 82, Special on new TV formats, August 2000.)

Continuum (special on documentary Issue 5:1, 1997)

Media Culture and Society (special on 'actuality' January 1996)

Metro (special issues on documentary No. 104, 1995. and No. 126, 2000)

Senses of Cinema - www.sensesofcinema.com