57061 Issues in Documentary

Handbook description

This subject introduces students to contemporary debates in documentary through screenings and readings. It allows students to develop skills in critically analysing documentaries, and encourages the development of research and scriptwriting skills for documentary. Students develop a documentary idea through research to treatment or first draft stage and/or produce critical analyses of documentaries.

Subject objectives/outcomes

1. To enable students to develop skills in critically analysing documentaries.
2. To introduce students to contemporary issues and debates through screenings and readings and to foster a climate of critical engagement with these debates.
3. To encourage the development of research and/or scriptwriting skills for documentary which students can use in the industry.
4. To provide students with an overview of the Australian documentary sector.

Contribution to graduate profile

Students completing this subject:

• Have developed advanced professional knowledge in documentary production.
• Have enhanced their knowledge of media cultures and industries, in particular, the issues and debates within the documentary film and television industries.
• Are able to conceptualise, research and develop a documentary project idea at an advanced level.
• Have developed their conceptual skills and critical thinking in media production.
• Have had the opportunity to enhance their professional skills in film and video documentary production.

Teaching and learning strategies

The subject will be conducted as weekly seminars throughout the semester.

There will be lectures, seminar discussions, screenings and case study presentations.

Students will present critical documentary case studies, film reviews and participate in script workshops to discuss and workshop their documentary script proposals.

This subject is linked to UTS Online: course materials, online communication and discussion board use is an intrinsic part of the course.

Content

The subject will cover the following content areas:

• Documentary Overview: brief history of documentary; documentary genres.
• Documentary Analysis: developing a textual and contextual critique of documentaries; documentary approaches to visual style; analysis of argument, structure and editing styles; authorial point of view.
• Documentary Evidence: the contemporary debates about reality, truth and history as relevant for the documentary maker; the role of the interview, archival and actuality as evidence in documentaries.
• Documenting Lives: different documentary approaches to biography and autobiography; the role of memory in documentary biography; the personal documentary.
• The Essay Documentary: origins of the essayist approach to documentary; the development of the filmmaker's voice; different genres of the essay; the poetics of documentary.
• Compilation/Archival Documentary: archival sources; the use of still photographs, home movies, graphic elements; re-enactments and fictional archival footage.
• Intercultural Documentary/Representing the Other/Inside the Skin: contemporary debates in ethnographic documentary; indigenous filmmaking and queer documentary.
• Changing Forms of Documentary: from Ethnographic Film to Cinema Verite to Reality Television and Mock-documentary: the relationship between reality television and cinema verite; advantages and disadvantages of different documentary forms; the impact of internet on documentary.
• Script Writing For Documentary: researching for documentary; taking an idea through synopsis, treatment and subsequent drafts; preparing a funding proposal.
• Documentary Production in Australia: the contexts for documentary production; current funding climate; policy of broadcasters and commissioning editors, non institutional funding of documentaries; international marketing and distribution; hyper-distribution of documentary.

Assessment

Assessment item 1: In-class seminar presentation

Assessment item 2: 3,000 word essay OR documentary treatment or script accompanied by a 1,000 word analytic essay.

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

Select Bibliography. Additional materials available Week 1

Baker, M, Documentary in the Digital Age, Elsevier Science & Technology Books, San Diego, 2006.

Beattie, Keith, Documentary screens: Non-fiction Film and Television, Hampshire; New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

Bernard, Sheila Curran, Documentary Storytelling for Film and Videomakers, Burlington: Focal Press, 2004.

Berry, C., Hamilton, A. & Jayamanne, L. (eds.), The Filmmaker & The Prostitute: Dennis O' Rourke's The Good Woman of Bangkok, Power Publications, Sydney, NSW, 1997.

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

Collins, Felicity and Davis, Therese, Australian Cinema after Mabo, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Dartnell, Michael, Y. Insurgency Online: Web Activism and Global Conflict, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 2006.

Goldsmith, David, The Documentary Makers: 20 Interviews with the Best in the Business, Hove: RotoVision, 2003.

Gross, L., Katz, J. S. & Ruby, J. (eds.), Image Ethics in the Digital Age, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 2003.

Holmes, Susan and Jermyn, Deborah (ed) Understanding Reality Television, London Routledge, 2004.

Kochberg, Searle (ed), Introduction to Documentary Production: A Guide for Media Students, London and New York: Wallflower Press, 2002.

Langton, Marcia, 'Well, I heard it on the radio and I saw it on the television': An Essay on the Politics & Aesthetics of Filmmaking by & about Aboriginal People and Things, AFC, Sydney, 1993.

Lupton, Catherine, Chris Marker: Memories of the Future, London, Reaktion Books, 2005.

MacDougall, David, Transcultural Cinema, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998.

MacDougall, David, The Corporeal Image, Film, Ethnography and the Senses, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006.

Marks, Laura, The Skin of the Film: Intercultural Cinema, Embodiment and the Senses: Durham, Duke University Press, 2000.

Nichols, Bill, Introduction to Documentary, Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2001.

Nichols, Bill, Blurred Boundaries: Questions of Meaning in Contemporary Culture, Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1994.

Nichols, Bill, Representing Reality: Issues and Concepts in Documentary, Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1991.

Rabiger, Michael Directing The Documentary (fourth edition) Oxford: Focal Press, 2004.

Renov, Michael (ed), The Subject of Documentary, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 2004.

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

Rosenthal, Alan, Writing, Directing and Producing Documentary Films, Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1990.

Roscoe, Jane and Hight, Craig, Faking It: Mock- documentary and the subversion of factuality, Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2001.

Russell, Catherine, Experimental Ethnography: the Work of Film in the Age of Video, Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1999.

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

Waldman, Diane and Walker, Janet (ed), Feminism and Documentary, Visible Evidence, Vol 5, Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 1999.

Winston, Brian, Claiming the Real: the Documentary Film Revisited, London: British Film Institute, 1995.

Winston, Brian, Lies, Damn Lies and Documentaries, London: British Film Institute, 2000.