UCSC/FILM + DIGITAL MEDIA DEPARTMENT
FILM 161.........DOCUMENTARY HISTORY AND THEORY
FALL 2008

Monday and Wednesday/ 6:00-8:40pm/ Communications Studio C
 
 
 
 

Professor: Irene Gustafson
[831] 459 1498 / Comm 125
click here to email


Office Hours: Tuesday 10:30-11:30am and by appointment

 
         
 

[syllabus last updated: 12.1.08]

      
   
  COURSE OVERVIEW
 

This course examines the “documentary” through a series of questions: What defines this genre or mode? And who defines it? What “truths” can documentary claim? How and when can these claims be made? In addressing these questions this course considers the documentary film or video in relation to a wide variety of contexts--- historical, political, and aesthetic. Course materials will cover the documentary ‘canon’—a set of historically important films and established discourses, and examine documentary’s recent resurgence as a popular mode of entertainment and as a mechanism of discourse.
   
 

Our class time together will typically include:


• Two weekly screenings, lectures, and on occasion, small group discussion.
• Each class period will begin with a lecture that contextualizes the week’s screenings and readings.
• We’ll take 10 minutes after each screening to reflect and write notes individually about the film. As this course does not include a separately scheduled discussion section, this is an opportunity for you to: voice your thoughts, ask questions, and demonstrate your engagement with course materials. This does not preclude note-taking during screenings. In fact, you are strongly encouraged to take notes during films.
   
  REQUIREMENTS FOR RECEIVING CREDIT
   
  • Attendance is mandatory; punctuality is required. Three unexcused absences, excessive lateness,and/or excessive absences at screenings will result in a NO PASS.
  • You are expected to inform the Instructor of any emergency situations that require your absence from class, and you are strongly encouraged to keep in touch with the Instructor about any absences.
  • Late papers WILL affect your grade.
  • In order to receive credit for the class, students must turn in all assignments
   
  Grade Breakdown:
  • Attendance + Participation (includes screening responses) 20%
  • Assignment #1 (DUE WED. 10/22) 30%
  • Assignment #2 (DUE MON. 11/24) 40%
  • Final Exam (DUE MON. 12/8 by noon) 10%
   
  REQUIRED READING
  REQUIRED:
  Articles available from this website as PDF files.
  SCHEDULE
    jump to week:
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1.

Monday September 29
Introduction and Admissions
Methodologies and Approaches
SCREENING: March of the Penguins [France, 2005, Luc Jacquet, 80 min.] DVD3131


Wednesday October 1
SCREENING: Nanook of the North [France, 1922, Robert Flaherty, 79 min.] DVD1666

READING DUE:

• Fatimah Tobing Rony, ”Taxidermy and Romantic Ethnography” in The Third Eye: Race, Cinema, and Ethnographic Spectacle [Durham: Duke University Press, 1996]

 
     
   

2.

Monday October 6
SCREENING: excerpts from Nanook of the North and March of the Penguins

READING DUE:

• Bill Nichols, “Introduction,” “Chapter 1: Why Are Ethical Issues Central to Documentary Filmmaking?” from Introduction to Documentary [Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001]

• Rebecca Wexler, ”Onward, Christian penguins: wildlife film and the image of scientific authority” Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 39 (2008) 273–279


Wednesday October 8
SCREENING: À propos de Nice [France, 1929, Jean Vigo, 22 min.] DVD6296
Lost Book Found [USA, 1996, Jem Cohen, 37 min.] DVD3954

READING DUE:

• John Grierson, “First Principles of Documentary” in Nonfiction Film: Theory and Criticism, ed. by Richard Meran Barsam [New York: Dutton,1976]


• Andre Bazin, “The Ontology of the Photographic Image” in What is Cinema vol.1, translated by Hugh Gray [Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967]
     
 

 

 

 

3.

Monday October 13
SCREENING:The River [USA, 1937, Pare Lorentz, 31 min.] DVD4803
Land Without Bread [Spain, 1932, Buñuel, 43 min.] VT7253

READING DUE:

• Bill Nichols, “Chapter 2: How do Documentaries Differ From Other Types of Films?” and “Chapter 3: What Gives Documentary Films a Voice of Their Own?” from Introduction to Documentary [Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001]


• Paul Arthur, “Jargons of Authenticity” in Theorizing Documentary, ed. by Michael Renov [New York: Routledge, 1993]

 

Wednesday October 15
SCREENING: Triumph of the Will [Germany, 1934, Leni Riefenstahl, 120 min.] DVD328


READING DUE:

• Bill Nichols, “Chapter 4: What are Documentaries About?” and “Chapter 8: How Can We Write Effectively About Documentary?” from Introduction to Documentary [Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001]

 
     
   

4.

Monday October 20
SCREENING: EXCERPTS from Triumph of the Will and The River


READING DUE:

• Bill Nichols, “Chapter 5: How Did Documentary Filmmaking Get Started?” and “Chapter 6: What Types of Documentaries Are There?” from Introduction to Documentary [Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001]


Wednesday October 22

ASSIGNMENT #1 DUE AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS


SCREENING: Titicutt Follies [USA, 1967, Frederick Wiseman, 45 min.] VT9496

READING DUE:


• Barry Keith Grant, “Ethnography in the First Person” in Documenting the Documentary, ed. Grant and Sloniowski [Detroit: Wayne State University, 1998]
     
   

5.

Monday October 27
SCREENING: Capturing the Friedmans [USA, 2004, Andrew Jarecki, 108 min.] DVD3659


READING DUE:

• Vikki Bell, “The Burden of Sensation and the Ethics of Form: Watching Capturing the Friedmans” Theory Culture Society (2008) 25:89, 89-101


Wednesday October 29
SCREENING: Models [Austria, 2004, Ulrich Seidl, 58 min.] DVD4646


READING DUE:

• Bill Nichols, “Chapter 7: How Have Documentaries Addressed Social and Political Issues?” from Introduction to Documentary [Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001]
   
   

6.

Monday November 3

GUEST ARTIST: MICHELLE DIZON (see: http://www.outoftimespace.net/Michelle%20Dizon.htm)


SCREENING:History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige [USA, 1991, Rea Tajiri, 32 min.] DVD6657


READING DUE:

• Keith Beattie, “The Camera I: Autobiographical Documentary” in Documentary Screens: Nonfiction Film and Television [New York: Palgrave, 2004]

 

Wednesday November 5
SCREENING: Reassemblage [USA, 1982, Trinh T. Hinh-ha, 40 min.] DVD6656


READING DUE:

• Nancy N. Chen + Trinh T. Minh-ha, “Speaking Nearby” in Visualizing Theory
ed. Lucien Taylor [New York: Routledge, 1994]


• Trinh T. Minh-ha, “The Totalizing Quest of Meaning” in Theorizing Documentary, ed. by Michael Renov [New York: Routledge, 1993]

 
     
   

7.

Monday November 10
SCREENING: Borat - Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan [USA, 2006, Larry Charles, 84 min.] DVD6603


READING DUE:

• Leshu Torchin, “Cultural Learnings of Borat Make for Bene€t Glorious Study of Documentary” Film & History, Volume 38:1 [2007]

• Dickie Wallace, "Hyperrealizing 'Borat' with the Map of the European 'Other'" Slavic Review 67:1 [2008]

 

Wednesday November 12
SCREENING: excerpts from Borat


READING DUE:

• Alisa Lebow, “Faking What? Making a Mockery of Documentary” in F is for Phony: Fake Documentary and Truth’s Undoing, ed. Alexandra Juhasz and Jesse Lerner [Minnealopis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006]
     
   

8.

Monday November 17
SCREENING:The Gleaners and I [France, 2000, Agnes Varda, 107 min] DVD1755


READING DUE:

• s.d. chrostowska, “vis - a-vis the glaneuse” ANGELAKI journal of the theoretical humanities, 12:2, August, 119-133


• Paul Arthur, “Essay Questions” Film Comment 39:1 [Jan/Feb 2003]


Wednesday November 19
SCREENING: Tongues Untied [USA, 1989, Marlon Riggs, 55min.] DVD4801


READING DUE:

• Phillip Lopate, ”In Search of the Centaur: The Essay-Film” in Beyond Document ed. Charles Warren [Hanover: University Press of New England, 1996]


• Sheila Petty, “ Silence and Its Opposite: Expressions of Race in Tongues Untied” in Documenting the Documentary, ed. Grant and Sloniowski [Detroit: Wayne State University, 1998]
     
   

9.

Monday November 24

ASSIGNMENT #2 DUE AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS


Screening: Grizzly Man (France, 2005, Werner Herzog, 103 min.) DVD6604


Reading due: John Berger, "Why Look at Animals?" in About Looking [New York: Vintage International, 1980]


Wednesday November 26
Screening: Bowling For Columbine [USA, 2002, Michael Moore, 119 min.] DVD1610


Reading due: TBA


[THANKSGIVING WEEKEND]
     
   

10.

Monday Decemeber 1
Screening: Standard Operating Procedure [USA, 2008, Errol Morris, 116 min.] DVD6626


Reading due:

•audio interview with Errol Morris

• http://morris.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/03/play-it-again-sam-re-enactments-part-one/#more-19


Wednesday Decemeber 3
Screening: Portrait of Turner (USA, 2008, Irene Gustafson, 60 min.)

 
   
     
   

FINAL EXAM DUE MONDAY DECEMBER 8TH, by 12 noon, via email or as a hard copy under my office door

If you want comments on your final, you must submit it as a hard copy and include a SASE.

I will accept via email if paper is attached as a PDF ONLY. No word docs or any other file format.
No late final exams accepted

 
     
     
    LAPTOP/MOBILE TECHNOLOGY USE:
    Laptops can be a useful tool in the service of teaching and learning, however, I ask that you use them productively and respectfully.
A few common sense rules:
1. Always set up your laptop computer before the beginning of class. Setting up the computer and booting it up can take a few minutes depending on what applications are set to open at startup. Turn off all other mobile devices before lecture begins
2. Disable sound
3. During lecture and classroom discussion, you should not be connected to network resources. To do so invites many distractions - web surfing, email, chats, etc. Chatting or emailing during class is no more acceptable than talking on a cell phone during class time. Additionally, your networked screens are distracting to those sitting near and behind you
If you are found to be doing anything other than note-taking (or sanctioned network activity) you will be asked to leave the class immediately and will be marked as absent for that day.
I reserve the right to further legislate laptop use in their classes. For example, you may be asked to close your computer during screenings or be asked to sit in the first two rows of the class if you are actively using your laptop.
     
    ACADEMIC INTEGRITY:
   

A note on academic integrity, plagiarism, and intellectual work:
At the university we are continually engaged with other people’s ideas: we read them in books, hear them in lecture, discuss them with our friends, engage with them on a personal level, and incorporate them into our own writing. As a result, it is very easy to blur the lines between our own intellectual work and the work of others. But, it is important that we give credit where it is due. Plagiarism is using others’ ideas and words without clearly acknowledging the source of that information.
To avoid plagiarism, you must give credit whenever you use
• another person’s idea, opinion, or theory;
• any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings—any pieces of information—that are not common knowledge;
• quotations of another person’s actual written words and/or spoken words; or
• paraphrase of another person’s spoken or written words.
The UCSC “Official University Policy on Academic Integrity for Undergraduate Students” can be found at:
http://www.ucsc.edu/academics/academic_integrity/undergraduate_students/