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DOCUMENTARY FILM SEMINAR - FMS367 Spring 2025
Course
Mary Angiolillo
This course surveys the history and contemporary vitality of non-fiction films, teaching students to appreciate the social significance and aesthetic possibilities of the form that is considered the taproot of cinema. The curriculum is divided into three sections: in the first, we identify the distinctive development and attributes of documentary; the second explores the range of subjects these films can address, using the largest human rights festival in Europe as a practical laboratory for writing about their topics, and the third outlines documentary’s current characteristics, as a historical chronicle, free associative essay, tester of truth, and ongoing inspiration for fiction films.
Course Contents
THE DISTINCTIONS OF DOCUMENTARY
(Origins and Definitions, Creative Choices: Technologies and Approaches,Social Effects,
Modes and Experiments)
COVERING THE SUBJECTS OF DOCUMENTARY
(Writing about Documentary, Documentary and the Group, Documentary and Individual Performance, Documentary and the Body,Documentary and Memory)
DOCUMENTARY’S MODERN MUTATIONS
(Documentary as a Historical Chronicle, Documentary as a Playful Essay, Documentary Plays with Truth ,Documentary Inspires Fiction)
Here is the course outline:
1. Documentary Film Course Introduction
Jan 30
Introductory Lesson |
2. Technological Beginnings
Feb 3
We will understand the conditions surrounding the emergence of early documentary film; identify the first documentary filmmakers; screen & discuss Edison kinetoscope films and Lumiere films; The Lumiere and company project is described and assigned. |
3. The Ethnological Illusion
Feb 3
Understanding the emergence of documentary storytelling by studying Flaherty's landmark film Nanook of the North. |
4. Film Truth, City Symphonies
Feb 10
We will discuss Vertov’s theories of film truth, and look at a subgenre of documentary popular in the 1920s - the City Symphony film. Clips screened from Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera and other city symphony films, including Rain by J. Ivens, 1929. Reflexive and poetic modes of documentary discussed. Questions related to "Fascination with Reality" exercise clarified. |
5. Lumiere exercise (Fascination with Reality)
Feb 17
We will screen the short "Lumiere and Company" /Fascination with Reality exercises (to be uploaded before class) |
6. British Film Movement and Propaganda
Feb 17
Lesson on British Documentary Film Movement and Propaganda |
7. Direct cinema and cinema vérité
Feb 24
Observation mode of documentary discussed, cinema verité vs direct cinema are compared; Clips are screened from famous documentaries within these movements, such as Primary and Chronicles of a Summer; Salesman is discussed. |
8. Re/enactments / The Children' s March
Mar 3
Expository and performative modes of documentary. Re-enactments |
9. The Thin Blue Line / Investigative Documentary
Mar 10
|
10. Documentary Activism
Mar 17
Documentaries made as provocation to action. The films of Michael Moore. |
11. One World Film Festival
Mar 24, TBA
Participation at screening of documentary film outside AAU /One World Film Festival (to be confirmed, program announced on March 1) |
12. Documentary Storytelling - Development of Treatment
Mar 31
Discussion of components in a documentary treatment. Portrait samples. Daughter of Danang. |
13. Guest Filmmaker Miroslav Janek
Apr 14
Miroslav Janek (winner of best documentary Czech Lion multiple times) will visit after the screening of his film Normal Autistic Film. |
14. Time-Lapse Documentaries
Apr 21
Time-lapse as a subgenre and technique. The work of Helen Trestiková |
15. Class meets after holidays (May 1 and May 8) with student pitches
May 12
Pitching of imagined documentary projects - in pairs or groups of 3. |
16. Final Exam (Taken online)
May 19
Objective exam on principles related to major periods in documentary history, documentary modes and landmark film. |