Paper #1 [4-5 pages]
DUE: Wednesday October 22nd at the beginning of class

Must be typed, double-spaced, 1” or less margins
Must be proofread for grammatical, typographic and spelling errors.

Bill Nichols defines documentary, however loosely, as a multifaceted mode of filmmaking. Using your own words, summarize his definition as he lays it out in chapters 1 through 4 of his book Introduction to Documentary. Then, using some contemporary non-fiction film as a ‘case study’ (not one that he describes) do a close analysis of it and argue for its inclusion as a non fiction text. Remember that Nichols defines nonfiction at the level of both production and reception and so you may need to do some ‘research’ in to the production and distribution of your particular chosen text: the conditions of its production, where it is shown, how it is marketed, what traditions it cites or works within, how it enunciates, etc.

PAPER #2 [6 pages total]
DUE: Monday November 24th at the beginning of class

Must be typed, double-spaced, 1” or less margins
Must be proofread for grammatical, typographic and spelling errors with a properly formatted Works Cited page

Over the course of the quarter we’ve watched numerous documentaries and have been exposed to a variety of different non-fiction forms and approaches [romantic ethnography, expository, “the drama at your doorstep”, observational, performative, reflexive, essayistic…]. Perhaps the most obvious omission from our syllabus has been ‘reality tv’ and its related forms—‘extreme’ game shows [Fear Factor, The Amazing Race], ‘celebrity verite’ [Breaking Bonaduce, Simmons Family Jewels], reality comedy [Candid Camera, Punk’d, The Ali G show], and more recently a self consciously hybrid form that merges reality tv with more cinematic approaches [Jackass the movie, The Thin Blue Line, Borat]. Even though these non-fiction texts are distinct from the ones that we’ve been studying its also quite clear that they cite and utilize older forms even as they chart new territories.

For this assignment you will be writing about Borat : Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan [UK/USA, 2006, Larry Charles, 82 min.]. The purpose of this assignment is twofold:

1. to apply the critical skills and theoretical concepts that you’ve learned to the analysis of a non-fiction film text

2. to explore an essayistic approach to non-fiction scholarship. In other words, your writing should ‘confound the perception of untroubled authority or comprehensive knowledge that a singular mode of address projects onto a topic’ [pg. 59, Paul Arthur].

You will answer three questions, producing your answers within three separate modes: research, personal experience, critical/theoretical analysis. Remember—an essay is an ‘unconventional’ piece of writing [in the sense of being multi or interdisciplinary] but is not mere opinion or conjecture. Rather, it attempts to get at the ‘truth’ of some phenomena or object through a flexible and inquisitive approach one that reflects back on its own processes of discovery. So, try to be mindful how each approach both differs and produces continuity

QUESTION 1: Is Borat a non-fiction film? How do you know? If so, what other non-fiction forms does it resemble or cite? [RESEARCH: production history, critical reception, assigned course readings on the film, etc.] 2 pages

QUESTION 2: How does the film address its viewer? In other words, how does it engage you? With humor? Through ‘shock’? Explore and analyze your own spectatorship. When do you laugh or cringe and why? [PERSONAL EXPERIENCE] 2 pages

QUESTION 3: Does the film reveal or produce any kind of ‘truth?’ If so, what kind and how? a political truth? a poetic truth? a personal truth? If not, why not? You must define how you are using the concept of ‘truth’ in your response. Bill Nichols will be a helpful resource here but you may use any of the readings from the course. [CRITICAL ANALYSIS, TEXTUAL ANALYSIS] 2 pages

Final Exam [2 pages]
DUE: Monday Dec 8th by 12pm—as a hard copy under my office door or as a pdf file via email (no other format will be accepted)

If you wish to receive comments on your final paper, you must submit it as a hard copy with an accompanying self addressed envelope

• Must be typed, double-spaced, 1” or less margins
• Must be proofread for grammatical, typographic and spelling errors with a properly formatted Works Cited page

Throughout every article we read this quarter, a persistent problematic has emerged--- non-fiction is a difficult genre to define. Impossible almost, but nonetheless, every writer has attempted a definition in some form, however contingent, provisional, or totalizing.

In your own words describe and analyze why this problematic exists and/or persists. Why does it matter if a film is labeled a “fiction” or a “non-fiction”? If it doesn’t matter, then why are we so obsessed with the question? If it does matter, why? In other words, what are the stakes (political, generic, cultural) of this problematic? How does a film’s label change our perception of it at the level of text and reception?

Your answer you must cite at least 2 articles we’ve read and one film we screened in class (but do not write on Borat). Your goal is to demonstrate that you understand the broad conceptual frame of the class and that you can apply theoretical concerns to your reception of a film text.