4410: Final Review

Pre-midterm topics and issues:

Definition(s)

Flaherty and Grierson

Social theory and 30s documentary (Bunuel; Lorentz)

Riefenstahl, Capra, Wyler, Resnais and World War II documents

Post-midterm Overview

50s British documentary, "Free Cinema;"

Thursday's Children

Television, new documentary forms;

Point of Order

Harvest of Shame

Primary

Rosie the Riveter

Interactive/observational films (cinema verite; direct cinema

Primary

Rosie the Riveter

Vietnam case study;

Hearts and Minds

Re-creation and mixed modes;

The Thin Blue Line

One Day in September

Current directions for documentary:

Winged Migration; Sicko

(with some consideration given to other recent documentaryies, such as Mad Hot Ballroom, Bowling For Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, Capturing the Friedmans, Supersize Me, Spellbound, Fog of War, Winged Migration, Control Room, Gunner Palace, An Inconvenient Truth, etc.)

Some ongoing issues in films and readings:

Indexical material

argument

evidence

proof

modes of documentary

fiction vs. documentary

voice

realism

subjects as victims

ideology

testimony

re-creation

ethics

Basic questions:

--what is documentary?

--what does it do?

--who are key filmmakers? What are their views on the above issues? What are their films? Why are they influential?

--what are key periods in documentary filmmaking?

--what is the relationship between documentary and technological progress?

--how has the distribution and exhibition of documentary changed over the last century?