USSY 285Q - The Documentary Impulse

Institution:

Case Western Reserve University

Subject:

Description:

The course is structured around a historical overview of documentary film from 1920 to the present. We begin with Robert Flaherty's Nanook of the North (1922) and focus on a different documentary style each week, from the city symphony films of the late 20s and early 30s (Jean Vigo, On the Subject of Nice, 1930) to avant-garde experiment (Dziga Vertov, The Man with a Movie Camera, 1929), to cinema verite (Rouch and Marin, Confessions of a Summer, 1955) and its effects on the French New Wave (Jean-Luc Godard, Breathless, 1959). Other style will include direct Cinema (Drew and Pennebaker, Primary, 1960), the improvisational style of John Cassavetes, the use of time-lapse photography (Reggio, Koyaanisqatsi, 1982), and, finally the mocumentary (Bob Roberts, 1992). The course will emphasize the importance of ideology, bias, and efforts to capture the "real" through the work of Leni Riefenstahl (Triumph of the Will, 1935), and 1970's examples of Third Cinema in Cuba, Brazil, and Argentina. Each student in The Documentary Impulse will be required to create on five-minute video using a particular documentary mode examined in class, paying attention to ideology, narrative structure, transitions, sounds, and video editing techniques. The final project will use either found stills, or newly shot filmed images, and will include a sound track either from the Freedman Center's archives, or of the student's own creation. Equal time will be devoted to written assignment that analyze the documentary style of particular films. The first half of the course will include a weekly film screening in KSL; after midterms, the location will alternate with the Freedman Center, where students will spend time creating and editing video projects. Prereq: Passing letter grade in a 100 level first year seminar in USFS, FSSY, FSCC, FSNA, FSSO or FSCS. Prereq or Coreq: FSTS 100

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.case.edu

Phone Number:

(216) 368-2000

Regional Accreditation:

North Central Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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